Power Anomaly
|Bennet house – next morning|
"Dad, mind if I talk to you about something?" Claire asks her father while she's sitting at the kitchen table and he's preparing some breakfast.
"Pregnant? Doing drugs?" Noah Bennet asks jokingly while he pours her a glass of orange juice.
"What? No." Claire replies amused.
"Actually, I already know what it's about." Noah tells her.
"You do?" Claire questions.
"About knowing who you are your mother told me you've been asking to meet your birth parents." Noah replies.
"I think it's time that I knew." Claire tells him.
"I have a few questions first, the first of which is why now?" Noah asks.
"Just wondering, that's all. You know what they're like, what they can do?" Claire replies.
"What they can do?" Noah asks knowing about her powers since he's an agent for the company who deals with superhumans.
"Yeah like hobby's and skills." Claire mumbles.
"You know, I don't mean this to be condescending, even though you're gonna say I'm condescending but I really do believe that this is an adult decision." Noah tells her.
"You're right that is condescending." Claire agrees.
"There are gonna be issues, you're gonna have issues, they are gonna have issues it's very complex emotionally." Noah tells her.
"Yeah well so am I." Claire replies taking the toast he offers her.
"Here is my advice, keep things light and fun as long as you can. Like Cheerleading." Noah tells her.
"Being a Cheerleader is hard work, hard traitorous work." Claire says.
"Of course, it is. Hey, I just don't want you to be in such a hurry to wake up OK? Trust me I actually know a few things." Noah tells her before she leaves for school.
|school- by the lockers|
Claire is talking to a football player who is flirting with her while another Cheerleader is trying to get his attention when Zach and Stephen walk over to their lockers, Zach actually running in a hurry while Stephen is more relaxed.
"It's actually not about having big hands most guys hands are too rough insensitive. Feel how soft they are." The football player tells Claire, taking her hand in his.
"Wow." Claire says half joking.
"You've got dainty hands." The football player tells her, playing with Claire's smaller hands.
"My mom says I've got dainty hands, maybe I should try out for the football team." The other Cheerleader cuts in.
"Claire, may I borrow your ear for just a moment." Zach asks her after he got his stuff from the locker, pulling her a few steps aside.
"Hey Zach, is it true you got an erection in the boys' locker room?" The other Cheerleader taunts him making Zach fake a grin at her while Stephen walks up to them saying "I bet even you would seeing this up close." to the Cheerleader while pulling up his shirt, showing her his toned abdomen and chest, making her scowl at the insult and Claire grin.
"Not now." Claire tells Zach, who is trying to tell her something urgent.
Their principal then comes up to the two girls saying "Claire, Jackie the sheriff and fireman would like to have a word with you two." And leads them to the other Cheerleaders and the sheriff asks them to line up, which they do he then says "girls, this isn't a criminal investigation, nobody here is in any kind of trouble. Quite the contrary, there just happens to be a very grateful man in the hospital who would like to thank one of you for saving his life yesterday."
"I've never seen someone so reluctant to be called a hero, are you sure it was one of our Cheerleaders?" The principal asks the fireman.
"The uniform said Union wells High. I'd have to say it was her on the end." The fireman says pointing at Claire.
"That's Claire Bennet." The principal tells them.
"Claire where did you go after Cheerleading practice?" the sheriff asks.
"I uhh…" Claire says until Jackie cuts her off saying "It wasn't her, it was me. I was taking a shortcut home from school and I saw the wreckage of the train wreck and I just had to help."
"Why didn't you say something?" The principal asks.
"I just didn't want the attention you know? It's not why I did it."
"Well on behalf of the Odessa fire department I'd like to congratulate you as an honorary firefighter." The fireman says shaking Jackie's hand making the other Cheerleaders cheer happily other than Claire who goes over to the Sheriff asking, "How is he?"
"Who?" The Sheriff asks.
"The man Jackie pulled out of the train." Claire replies.
"He's got some pretty bad burns, smoke damaged his lungs but he's alive and happy to be so." The Sheriff informs her.
"Thanks to Jackie." Claire says grinning to herself.
|moments later – football practice|
Claire is walking across the field with Zach and Stephen following her.
"Claire I'm glad I finally got you alone, we have to talk." Zach tells her once he and Stephen catch up to her.
"Did you hear they asked Jackie to be the grand marshal at the pioneer parade? They are gonna put her on top of the firetruck." Claire says upset.
"It's about the videotape." Zach tells her.
"The tape where you kill yourself like 20 times." Zach tells her riled up.
"Oh yeah, can we just keep it under wraps?" Claire asks.
"That's what I'm trying to tell you it was in my bag pack and now it's not." Zach tells her, turning her to face him.
"What?" Claire asks shocked, looking at Stephen.
"I didn't do it, not like I have a tape player." Stephen tells her holding his hands up innocently.
"What do you mean it's gone?" Claire asks Zach annoyed until Stephen sees the football player she was flirting with earlier come running at them madly and about to tackle Claire. Stephen steps in front of her and braces himself by making a telekinetic wall in front of him, not that anyone could see it and the player runs against it, falling over while looking like Stephen knocked him down.
"Dude watch where you're going." Stephen tells the player who is sitting up, groaning.
"We've got to find that tape." Claire tells Zach and Stephen before she runs over to the other Cheerleaders cheering loudly.
"I really don't mind getting dragged in this but her being polite about it would be nice for a change." Stephen tells Zach as they walk off the field.
"Like that is ever gonna happen." Zach sighs.
"You're welcome by the way." Stephen tells Claire telepathically.
"Seriously? Thanks for blocking him for me but are you gonna talk to me in my head the whole time now?" Claire thinks assuming he'll hear her.
"Who knows, could be fun." Stephen tells her.
"Come on, I need to focus, please get out of my head." Claire begs him.
"Well since you asked so nice I'm gonna comply." Stephen tells her, turning around to smirk at her getting a mock glare in return.
|after school|
"So again, what the hell do you mean it's gone?" Claire asks Zach.
"Well I looked everywhere, at home, at school in my locker in my bag nothing. It's like it just vanished." Zach replies.
"Well it better reappears soon, or I'll have someone's head on a platter." Claire hisses annoyed at him.
"I really can't deal with this too." Claire whines annoyed.
"Why make a tape in the first place if it's just a burden to you?" Stephen asks.
"Well I didn't think Zach would lose it." Claire replies.
"OK that's his bad, anyway I can help look for it?" Stephen asks the two of them.
"No, I've already retraced my steps twice, someone must have found it." Zach tells him offended.
"Alright well it's getting late I think we should all head home and deal with it tomorrow." Stephen suggests.
"OK." Claire grumbles.
"I'll check at home again, I'll tell you if I find it." Zach says and swings on his bike, taking off.
"So, am I gonna meet your parents today?" Stephen asks her as they start walking towards her house.
"Who said we were gonna walk home together? Plus isn't your house like across town?" Claire asks.
"Yes, but I think you're forgetting a T. teleportation. And I've just decided to tag along since you are obviously not very observant I mean almost getting steamrolled by a football player in full gear, how did you not see him?" Stephen asks amused.
"Well sorry for not paying attention because I just heard that my life as I know it is going to end." Claire replies sarcastically, annoyed at him for teasing her.
"Oh, come on, I'm just trying to help. I think we should stick together, I was part of a super human society back in my dimension we were called the tomorrow people because we were the next evolutionary step, it's really beneficial having friends you can trust and talk to openly." Stephen tells her.
"Alright, just cut it out with the constant jokes OK?" Claire replies.
"Deal, just one more question. What's up with you and Mr. gentle hands?" Stephen asks curiously.
"What's it to you?" Claire asks back.
"Nothing just looking out for my friend, he seems like the do them and dump them type, if you want I could sneak a peek in that dirty little mind of his." Stephen offers.
"No, just let me have this one normal thing OK?" Claire tells him.
"Alright but if you need help I'm here." Stephen agrees.
"Come on I'll teleport you the rest of the way, this is taking to long and I have a shift to cover." Stephen tells her, grabbing her shoulder before they reappear outside her house.
"See you tomorrow Claire." Stephen tells her and gets in a running position, only taking one step before he vanishes.
Claire shakes her head at her new friend before she opens her door.
"Claire-bear." Noah Bennet greets her happily, closing the laptop he was watching something on quickly.
"Hi dad." Claire greets him back.
"How was school?" Noah asks.
"Very school like, how was work?" Claire replies.
"Very work like. Listen I made a couple of calls and I spoke to a very nice woman at the adoption agency, she said she'll get in touch with your birth parents and request a meeting." Noah tells her.
"I thought that was an adult decision?" Claire asks surprised.
"Well you seemed very adult this morning when you told me that you wanted to meet them." Noah replies.
"Thanks." Claire says.
"It's a process so it could take weeks. I'm hoping years, so you will be my little girl a while longer and I can protect you from the world." Noah tells her.
"I won't be a little girl forever though, but I'll always love you dad." Claire tells him.
"I love you too and now get ready for dinner." Noah tells her.
|the next morning|
Noah is taking Claire to school today since she needs to transport a piñata like replica of the school's mascot, which is a bear in a football uniform.
"So, if our team wins there will be celebratory bonfire where I need to be present, so I might be around midnightish." Claire tells her father who is helping her carry the mascot out of the trunk.
"On a school night?" Noah asks doubtfully.
"A celebratory school night." Claire replies staring at the football player she's been flirting with yesterday who smiles back at her.
"So, is that the quarterback?" Noah asks knowingly.
"Who?" Claire questions.
"The boy that you like over there." Noah says.
"I don't like him, I mean he's a very nice boy but… Yes, he's the quarterback." Claire tells him with a sigh.
"If you really wanted to make me happy you would date nerds, it worked out very well for your mother." Noah says.
"I love your glasses Mr. Bennet." Jackie says seeing him approach with Claire.
"Thank you, Jackie rumor has it you're a local hero and pulled a man out of a burning train fire." Noah praises her.
"You heard about that? OMG does everybody know?" Jackie asks.
"It was on the news you told half the school to set their TVos." Claire says unamused.
"Well for once I'm glad I don't have one of these." Stephen exclaims arriving at the group, making Claire chuckle.
"Nice to meet you, you must be Mr. Bennet. I'm Stephen." Stephen says offering his hand to Claire's father.
"Yes, nice to meet you too. Do you know my daughter? You look a bit older." Noah replies curiously while shaking his hand.
"As a matter of fact, I am but I have amnesia and can't remember much from before 3 months ago, so they decided to put me in a grade lower than I should be. And I've recently met Claire through my buddy Zach." Stephen says.
"Oh, I'm sorry, having amnesia at such a young age must be hard." Noah tells him.
"Not really the only thing that sucks is that I don't know if I have family out there somewhere." Stephen replies.
"Well I have to go, you be careful Claire-bear." Noah tells his daughter before he leaves, handing Stephen the lower part of the mascot while Jackie already left to chat with the other Cheerleaders.
"So what is this thing supposed to be?" Stephen asks helping Claire carry it to her locker.
"It's the school's mascot have you been sleeping the whole 3 months you were here?" Claire asks jokingly.
"Hey, I have other things on my mind." Stephen tells her pouting.
"Oh yeah like what? How am I gonna get a girlfriend?" Claire taunts.
"Hey, I'll have you know back home I had a girlfriend. Plus, I'd only consider dating one girl at this school." Stephen tells her defensively.
"Please don't tell me it's Jackie." Claire says whining.
"It's not Jackie, but you know her quite well." Stephen replies.
"Really? Amanda, Cloe?" Claire asks intrigued as Stephen leaves only for him to tell her 'just look in the mirror' Telepathically, making her stop what she's doing, shocked that he likes her.
"Nah, he's just screwing with me again." Claire tells herself.
"Who is?" Zach asks arriving at school.
"Stephen." Claire replies.
"Really? Never mind what are you doing running off to an away game while your tape of attempts of bodily harm is still missing." He asks her.
"Yeah well when someone finds it we'll just tell them you did some kind of visual effect with your computer on it, now can I get back to my life?" Claire tells him.
"So that's it you're just gonna pump your pom-poms like you're any other girl on the squad?" He asks confused.
"Yes actually." Claire says.
"But you are different Claire, don't you see that none of this matters? School spirit doesn't matter, being a pretty blonde Cheerleader doesn't matter, it's not who you are anymore." Zach tells her.
"Who am I? So what if I can crawl through a woodchipper and life to tell about it, that narrows my choices in life to freak or Guinea pig, in most cases both. What's wrong with wanting to be normal? You should try it." Claire rants walking off as the bell rings.
|that evening|
After a successful game everyone is having a bonfire party.
Claire is standing in front of the Bonfire, watching the bear mascot nailed to the fire start to burn while Jackie is telling a bogus story about how she saved the man from the fire to the other Cheerleaders as Brody, the quarterback Claire is crushing on approaches Claire.
"what's the stuffing?" He asks her, looking at the bear.
"I used old newspapers." Claire tells him.
"I would have used some firecrackers, but this works too." He tells her grinning.
"That would have been cool." Claire says.
"Don't stand so close or you'll light up like that guy." Brody warns her, pulling her a step back.
"I'm not as flammable as you think." Claire tells him.
"Are you sure this is OK?" Claire asks him as he hands her a beer.
"We're 30 miles from home, who is gonna know? Jackie told me you wanted to meet your real mom and dad." Brody asks.
"I told Jackie that in confidence." Claire says.
"You do realize you told it to Jackie right? Anyway, so you're not so bummed, my goal tonight is to make you laugh." Brody tells her when firecrackers explode in the stuffed bear behind them.
"Hah, did you put firecrackers in the bear just for me?" Claire asks laughing until Brody kisses her and pulls her away form the crowd to the bleachers.
'Hey how's it going over there, did you win?' she suddenly hears Stephen's voice in her mind.
'leave me alone, I'm having an enjoyable evening with Brody, don't ruin it for me.' She thinks, knowing he'll hear her as Brody starts to make out with her on the bleachers.
Brody tries to slide her skirt up, but Claire stops him telling him "Let's just take a break, I'm going through something and I don't know if now it is the right time."
Brody turns her around, so she faces him and tells her "Know what you need to relax." Before he starts to kiss her roughly.
"What's gotten into you?" Claire asks trying to push him away but he's stronger than her and pusher her down.
"I just really like you Claire." He tells her lying down on her.
"No stop." Claire tells him and tires to push him off but is has no affect due to his bigger size and he pushes her off the bleachers and starts to grab at her clothes, tryin to get them off while she yells at him to stop. Stephen who was going to ask her something telepathically hears her and teleports over to where she is, arriving just as she kicks Brody off her but he runs after her, throwing her against a fence and making her fall on a up sticking branch, impaling her skull, causing her to lie on the ground lifeless as Brody tries to see what's wrong until he sees the branch impaled in her skull. He then tries to leave but Stephen enraged by this uses his telekinesis to throw him violently against the bleachers, before walking over to him and then start to beat the guy within an inch of his life, shattering his kneecap and breaking an arm in the process, until he hears the familiar ringing in his head preventing him from killing anyone.
Stephen goes over to Claire, picking her up gently and teleports to his home.
"I hope she can heal from this." Stephen says panicking and pulls out the branch sticking out of her head. As soon as the branch is removed the hole starts to close up and Claire wakes up coughing violently.
"Here, everything is OK." Stephen tells her, handing her a glass of water.
"Wha? Where am I, what happened?" Claire asks looking around the sparse apartment Stephen is renting.
"You're at my place, Brody won't get you here, or anyone for a while for that matter." Stephen tells her brushing her hair gently, trying to calm her down.
"What happened? The last thing I remember is kicking Brody off me as he was trying to rape me and then nothing." Claire asks scared.
"You fell when he followed you and impaled yourself on this." Stephen tells her handing her the branch.
"What about Brody?" Claire asks.
"I took care of him, he'll live but I don't think he'll be playing football ever again." Stephen tells her.
"Thanks, I guess, how did you know I needed help?" Claire asks.
"I heard you when I tried to talk to you." Stephen answers tapping the side of her head.
"So now what?" Claire asks sitting up, checking if anything else is damaged other than her clothing.
"Now you can use my shower and put on some new clothes before I bring you home and we'll talk to your dad about filing a police report." Stephen tells her, getting some clothes out of a drawer.
"Thanks, and I guess you were right about Brody." Claire tells him as she walks to where Stephen told her the shower is.
"Yeah, it's not actually making me happy since this happened." Stephen tells her before she vanishes in the bathroom.
15 minutes later Claire comes out of the bathroom, the clothes Stephen gave her hanging form her far smaller physique making him chuckle before he catches her glare, making him shut up.
He then teleports them in front of her house, where they approach the door, knocking and not long after Noah Bennet opens the door and freaks seeing Claire's current state and moves to attack Stephen but Claire stops him yelling "Stop daddy, Stephen didn't do anything, he saved me."
"Sorry then, I'm sure you can imagine what this looks like to me." Noah apologizes before he ushers Claire in, still weary of the boy with her and closes the door behind them once their inside.
"So, what happened? You look terrible honey." Noah tells her.
"Well you were right about Brody, he tried to rape me at the bonfire party, but Stephen stopped him before he could do anything." Claire tells him in tears.
"Thank you so much for keeping my daughter save." He thanks Stephen, only getting a nod in return.
"And for this Brody character, don't worry I'll deal with him." Noah tells her darkly.
"Stephen actually did that, we only need to report him to the police." Claire informs her father.
"Did you make him suffer for touching my little girl?" Noah asks the teen.
"Well he won't be doing anything any time soon and a football career should be impossible for him now." Stephen tells him.
"Good." Noah says.
"Now come on Claire, lets get you to bed. Wait here please, I'd like a word." Noah says turning to Stephen at the second part.
He then brings Claire to her room, where he tucks her in and tells her that everything is going to be OK.
"So how did you find my little girl?" Noah asks curiously.
"I was with her at the party and went looking for her after I got us something to drink, when I heard her yell for help." Stephen half lied.
"Well thank you again, I don't know what I would have done if something happened to my little angel." Noah says shaking his hand thankfully.
"So, what about this Brody?" Noah then asks.
"He's lying on the bleachers with a broken knee, arm and last I saw him he was unconscious with a few teeth missing." Stephen replies.
"He can be glad I wasn't there, or he'd be 6 feet under by now." Noah says darkly.
"OK, well good to see you again to bad it's under such terrible circumstances. Tell Claire she can keep the clothes and I guess I'll see you around. By the way if you need me for the police report just tell me when and where." Stephen tells him before he leaves the house and walks down the street a bit before teleporting back to his apartment.
Once he's home he gets dressed for bed and lies down on it before he telepathically tires to reach Claire 'Claire are you awake?'
'Yes.' She answers.
'If you need anything just tell me. I could erase the memory for you for example.' Stephen offers.
'Thanks but I think I need to remember this, so I won't be as trusting the next time.' Claire replies.
'Alright, well good night.' Stephen says.
'Wait, I have one question, I couldn't shake what you told me at the lockers earlier. Do you really have a crush on me?' Claire asks him.
'What do you think? It's not like I just teleport around helping everyone I meet.' Stephen tells her.
'Alright, I just wanted to know, good night.' Claire tells him with a small smile on her face.
'Hey seriously, you're just gonna leave me hanging like that? Not cool.' Stephen complains but upon getting no reply he caves telling her 'Good night Claire.' Before turning off his lamp and trying to get some sleep himself.