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AN: To clarify, I'm assuming at this point that Isaac is staying with Bennett to work on refining his abilities without the need for drugs (since Bennett is reasonably sure that Claire's safe now that Sylar's contained), but Hiro and Ando made it to New York on their own to prepare for the explosion. Claire and Ron's tip guided Hiro to the sword and Isaac's apartment ahead of when he found both in canon, but events for Nikki, DL and Micah are still basically unaffected by Kim and Ron's presence, and Sylar's still going to be in Primatech's custody until his canon escape; hope that clears up the timelines for those who might have been wondering.

The Not-So-Average Girl

When Simone walked into Isaac's loft, she wasn't sure what she'd been expecting to find. She'd spent the last couple of days trying Isaac's phone and getting nothing, and she almost hadn't dared to try and get in touch with Peter because she wasn't sure what she wanted to hear from him, but ever since she'd seen that theft in the mall, she felt that she had to do something…

"Hello?"

Simone was so shocked to hear someone talking to her in the loft that she almost walked into one of the railings around the loft. Coming to an abrupt halt, she assessed the group of people standing before her, which consisted of two Japanese men and a couple of blonde teenagers, all of whom were looking at her in surprise.

"Uh… hi?" she said tentatively.

"Hi," the blonde girl replied. "Are you… a friend of Peter's?"

"Peter?" Simone repeated in surprise. "Peter Petrelli?"

"That's the guy!" the young man grinned, before he looked over at the others. "That is Peter's surname, right?"

The chubbier Japanese man nodded enthusiastically at him.

"You're… why are you looking for Peter in Isaac's loft?" Simone asked.

"Well, we were looking for Isaac earlier and he wasn't in, but we all had some stuff to do, so we'd arranged to meet up back here once… well, once we'd done it," the girl explained. Her awkward expression put Simone in mind of some of her father's old business associates, on the few meetings that she'd been allowed to sit in on, when the other party had wanted to tell her father something they weren't comfortable revealing to him for some reason.

Actually, now that she looked at the girl properly…

"Hold on… you're the cheerleader, aren't you?" she asked tentatively. "The one Peter thought he had to save?"

"Hey!" the blond boy said indignantly. "He did save her!"

"Peter Petrelli hero!" the chubbier Japanese man nodded eagerly. "He great man… he Superman!"

"Right…" Simone said uncertainly before she looked at the blonde girl; she'd work out what that guy meant about comparing Peter to Superman later. "So… what's your name?"

"Claire Bennett," the girl replied. "This is Ron Sinclair, and these two are Hiro and Ando."

"Hey!" Ron said indignantly. "Don't forget Rufus!"

"Ruf-?" Simone began, before Ron reached into his pocket and pulled out a small pink thing that put Simone in mind of a hairless rat.

"Rufus," Ron explained. "He's a naked mole rat; KP thinks he was some kind of research subject before he broke out of a lab."

"Right…" Simone said, deciding not to question why a young man had a pet naked mole rat (was that actually a real thing?) in his pocket before she turned to the Japanese men. "So, Hiro and Ando… what are your full names?"

"Nakamura and Masahashi," Hiro answered, indicating himself and his friend with an eager smile before his expression became more solemn. "We seeking sword-"

"Hold on," Simone held up a hand as she looked urgently at the two older men. "Hiro Nakamura? Ando Masahashi? Is this some kind of Punk'd bit?"

"Punk'd?" Hiro repeated in confusion.

"This help?" Ando said as he pulled a comic book, titled 9th Wonders, out of a backpack, and opened it to reveal a six-panel spread of Hiro concentrating on something, followed by him yelling something out in the middle of what looked like Times Square.

"Whoa, you guys are in a comic book?" Ron grinned at the other two before his expression faltered. "I can't decide if that's cool or creepy."

"You had this in your bag?" Claire asked as she looked over Ando's shoulder to read the comic herself.

"Mr Isaac gave us," Hiro grinned as he took the book from Ando and showed it to Simone. "We met him earlier; he send us here while he paints."

"So… this is all you?" Simone said, staring uncertainly at the comic. She certainly recognised Isaac's artistic style, and there was a similarity between the people in the comic and the young men in front of her. "Isaac mentioned you once or twice when I was looking over his stuff, but… you're real?"

"Yes," Hiro said, flicking back through a couple of pages to indicate earlier parts of the story. "I worked there, at Yamagato and we fly here, and w-we drive that car everywhere. Blue Nissan Versa. It parked nearby. I'm just like Mr. Isaac draw me… except my face not so round."

"And we looking for this sword," Ando added, opening the tube Hiro was wearing on his back and pulling out a large piece of paper, which he unfolded to reveal a sketch of what seemed to be Hiro wielding a sword against a Tyrannosaurus Rex.

"The sword," Simone repeated, shaking her head with a bemused smile. "The world is going insane, so I might as well just quit fighting it; Isaac paints the future, you need a sword, and saving you saved the world… why is that, anyway?"

"She heals," Ron explained. "From everything."

"Literally," Claire commented. "Ron and I started hanging out when his friend pulled a tree branch out of my head, and I've even managed to put my own head back on straight after someone broke my neck."

"Uh… right," Simone looked uncertainly at the younger woman. "That's… cool?"

"Not when we're dealing with a guy who we're pretty sure is stealing powers from other people and almost made Claire here his next victim," Ron said with a bitter edge to his voice.

"Which is what we think Peter had to save me from," Claire finished.

"Ah," Simone said tentatively.

"And now we stop explosion," Hiro added.

"Explosion?" Simone looked anxiously at him.

"Just… well, we have a few different sources that tell us there's going to be some kind of big problem coming up in the future, and Hiro's pretty sure he needs to have this sword to help him get proper control of his powers," Ron explained with a brief shrug. "We've worked out that the sword he's looking for is owned by some guy called 'Linderman', but we're pretty much-"

"Linderman?" Simone looked at them with a new sense of confidence. "As in Daniel Linderman?"

"We didn't exactly get a first name-" Claire began.

"But who is that guy?" Ron asked.

"A client of mine," Simone explained with an incredulous grin. "Huge collector; he buys every painting of Isaac's that he can. If you think he's got the sword, I can get you to where he's likely to keep it."

"Where that?" Ando asked.

"Vegas," Simone grinned. "Get your car together; you're going back."

"To Vegas?" Ron said, following up Simone's grin with his own as he looked at the two Japanese men. "Can I come?"

"Time travel," Audrey repeated, looking at Mohinder with every bit of self-restraint she'd learned in her career, as the three of them sat around Mohinder's table. "Someone can actually travel in time because of these… abilities your dad wrote about?"

"I will stress that I'm basing this purely on second-hand evidence, but… looking back… I have no reason to believe that the man was lying to me," Mohinder replied; there was a slightly shameful edge to his manner as he spoke, but he didn't give Audrey the impression that he was lying. "I don't have exact details, but it's something to consider, certainly."

"What kind of… other abilities are we talking about here?" Matt looked curiously at Mohinder. "I mean, you've heard of a guy who can travel in time; what else is there?"

"That depends," Mohinder looked at Matt with a slight smile. "What can you do?"

"Me?"

"Well, I've heard of a man who can fly, a man who can paint the future, and based on the crime scene reports you've shown me at least one of our victims likely had the ability to generate intense cold, but what can you do yourself?"

"What makes you think-?" Audrey began.

"The fact that he's on this task force to start with," Mohinder observed. "No offence, Officer Parkman, but I did some reading, and while your record isn't bad, it doesn't show any sign that you had a more conventional insight that would justify your presence here, so what can you do?"

"…He's a telepath," Audrey said.

"Audrey…" Matt looked over at her.

"Hey, if he's going to be on the team, we might as well start being honest."

"Telepathy?" Mohinder looked at Matt with new interest. "Fascinating…"

"Up to a point," Matt shook his head in grim resignation. "I'm still working on actually controlling anything to get more than whatever everyone's thinking right now, and that's before you start on how I can't work out how to turn it off…"

"Ah," Mohinder said. "My condolences."

"…Thanks," Matt said, sighing in frustration as he bent his head over the table. "It's had its uses, but we're still working on finding an actual lead on this Sylar guy…"

He sighed again in exasperation, prompting a sympathetic look from Audrey. She'd picked up enough in the rare moments when Parkman talked about his private life to establish that his marriage was having trouble even before he started helping her with the current case, but the best she could do to help that was make it clear to his official superiors that he was proving to be a useful asset to her current investigation.

It was a small step, but at least when he next went home he'd be able to confirm he was making a good impression…

A knocking on the door drew Audrey's attention from her current thoughts. The agent looked curiously at the doctor, but when he shrugged uncertainly, she got up and walked over to the door, opening it to reveal an unfamiliar man in a smart fawn suit.

"Hello," she said briefly.

"Hello," the man replied. "I'm looking for Doctor Suresh; is he in?"

"Doctor?" Audrey turned back to look at her new colleague.

"Yes?" Mohinder said, standing up to join Audrey at the door. "Nathan Petrelli, correct?"

"You yelled at my car a couple of weeks back," Petrelli observed, before looking at Audrey. "And who is this?"

"Special Agent Audrey Hanson," Audrey replied, studying the man for a moment before deciding that the doctor deserved at least some kind of cover story. "I'm with the FBI; Doctor Suresh is assisting me with a case."

"Really?" Petrelli looked between them in surprise before his gaze moved to Matt. "And you are?"

"Matt Parkman," the cop confirmed. "I'm… working on the case too."

"I… see," Petrelli said, before looking back at Mohinder. "Well, if you're busy, I'm… sorry to bother you, but I need to talk with you about… my brother; I don't suppose you've seen him"

"No," Mohinder replied. "Should I have?"

"He's been… strange… ever since you spoke with him, and the last I heard of him he was… taking a very unusual trip," Petrelli said, looking uncertainly at Matt and Audrey for a moment before focusing back on the Indian doctor. "Could you explain… what the hell's happening to him?"

"In what sense?" Mohinder asked, looking briefly at Audrey and Matt before he turned back to Nathan. "And if this is about Peter's abilities, I should mention that these two are aware of those details; the case I'm consulting with actually relates to the topic."

"It does?" Petrelli looked at Audrey with new concern. "How does-?"

"I can't discuss information relating to ongoing investigations," Audrey cut the man off. "If your brother's got something to do with this case, what exactly do you want Doctor Suresh for?"

"Peter… he's not been himself," Petrelli said, looking uncertainly at the others before deciding to focus on Mohinder. "If you know anything about his condition, would you be able to fix it?"

"Hold on; 'fix it'?" Matt stood up to glare at Nathan. "You came here to ask Doctor Suresh about 'fixing' your brother because he has something other people don't? Because he isn't like other people?"

"This is for his own good-"

"To make him like everyone else?" Matt interrupted. "You know what that reminds me of? Those jerks who act like it's OK to beat up the guys they saw coming out of a gay bar."

"What?" Petrelli looked at Matt in what at least looked to Audrey like genuine indignation. "I don't want to hurt my brother-"

"You just want to make him feel like there's something wrong with what he is," Matt cut him off. "I'm not saying these abilities are always easy, but the way you're… does it even matter to you what your brother can do, or are you just concerned about the fact that he isn't like everyone else?"

"Easy, Parkman," Audrey said, deciding to maintain a more professional appearance before turning back to Petrelli, even as she privately wondered how her life had reached the stage where she was defending someone's right to be capable of weird crap. "That said, my partner's got a point; if you have some kind of issue with your brother just having abilities in the first place, I'm not going to help you try and 'fix' him like some kind of 'scare 'em straight' camp."

"And… I'm not going to go that far," Mohinder looked at Petrelli, his initially tentative expression becoming more firm as he addressed the other man. "If your brother comes to me on his own accord to ask for help, I will see what I can do to help him control his abilities, but I'm not going to try and… force him to become something just because you don't like it."

Petrelli looked around the room for a moment, but soon nodded at them with a slight curl to his mouth that Audrey didn't like before he walked back out the door.

"OK," Audrey turned to look at Mohinder, "thanks for not going into detail there, but is that guy going to be a problem?"

"Considering that he has shown no signs that he's manifested yet, unlikely."

"Manifested?" Matt looked at Mohinder in surprise. "He's on this list?"

"And his brother Peter," Mohinder nodded. "Peter has… well, even he wasn't sure what he could do exactly, but Nathan Petrelli appears to have shown no sign of anything yet."

"Should we keep an eye on him?"

"Unlikely," Mohinder shook his head. "Based on Sylar's targets so far, not only is he some distance from New York, but with Petrelli's current campaign for election, I feel that he would be too high-profile."

"He's trying to get elected?" Matt looked at Mohinder in surprise.

"Makes sense on the Sylar front, anyway," Audrey nodded; she vaguely remembered hearing 'Petrelli' somewhere, but she didn't pay much attention to local politics if they didn't impact her work. "Sylar's always gone after low-key targets so far, like a family at home or a waitress at a diner; whatever he can do, not sure he's ready to face the kind of heat he'd get for going after a senatorial candidate."

"Quite," Mohinder nodded. "And with Peter also apparently off the radar, at least we can rule out a couple of people as Sylar's likely next targets…"

"OK," Kim said, as she paced uncertainly around Peter's apartment (the place was surprisingly large for a man who had confirmed he was between jobs, but she guessed that was more of a family matter rather than him having some nest egg he'd used up already). "If Mr Invisible's not an option, what's our next call? We try and… wean you off me?"

"You're not a drug I'm addicted to, Kim, and stop acting like-" Peter began, before he cut himself off with a sigh. "Sorry; I just… I know that you've been through a lot the last few days yourself, and I do appreciate the help, but it's just… God, I don't know."

Peter groaned as he sat down on the couch, looking up at the ceiling in exasperation. "We need some kind of target beyond 'stop this explosion', and our best lead just isn't giving us anything…"

The sound of a door opening prompted Peter to stand up, Kim falling into a cautious defensive position beside him as another man walked into the room. Kim quickly worked out that she was looking at the brother Peter had mentioned- the resemblance was slight, but how many people would just walk into Peter's apartment like that if they weren't close to him already?- but that left the question of what he was doing here.

"You haven't been answering your phone," Nathan said, looking at Peter with restrained surprise. "I've been looking for you for days… and who the hell is this?"

"Kim," Kim replied, already certain this man wasn't getting her surname any time soon; judging by the glare he gave her, Kim got the impression he was already blaming her for something.

"She's a friend," Peter said simply, moving carefully to a position where Kim was behind him and away from Nathan. "What are you doing here?"

"Trying to help you."

"How?" Peter said, Kim keeping herself ready for whatever the older man might be about to suggest.

"I'm… trying to talk with Doctor Suresh," Nathan explained (to his credit, he at least seemed slightly awkward about what he was saying). "He might be able to work out a way of curing-"

"'Curing'?" Kim cut Nathan off with a cool glare, her low opinion of Peter's brother falling significantly further. "You're going to 'cure' Peter of being able to copy other peoples' abilities? And what, if you can 'cure' him you'll find a way to 'cure' others from their own dangerous abilities? Is this at least about trying to help him, or is this just about saving your own reputation to be sure you don't… screw up your own campaign because of some kind of anti-mutant crap?"

"Anti-mutant?" Nathan repeated.

"You can fly and you've never bothered to read X-Men?"

"You told her?" Nathan glared at Peter.

"It came up after I helped to save her friend, and we are not making this about Kim," Peter countered. "We're working on something-"

"And how long is that going to take?"

"Longer if you keep stepping in and acting like Peter's some idiot kid who needs you to hold his hand everywhere," Kim retorted.

"What Peter does could be dangerous; if I can find the right doctors, maybe he'll be able to fix this-"

"Yeah, 'cure', 'fix', 'mend'; I'm hearing a lot of terms that I really don't like," Kim cut Nathan off with a bitter glare, giving Peter an apologetic glance for taking over the argument before she turned her attention back to Nathan. "You know, whatever else Peter is, I'm not saying his abilities don't have problems, but that's just what he is; acting like you can 'fix' him is just… I mean, it sounds to me a lot like the idea of getting someone to 'pray the gay away'."

"I'm not going to let Peter ruin his life-"

"I'm right here and I can speak for myself, Nathan," Peter glared at his brother. "And I'm not going to let myself be some damn guinea pig when I've got other things to worry about."

"You can't just run off, Peter."

"What are you going to do, call the cops on me?" Peter retorted.

"I could have my mentally ill brother detained for his own safety."

"You what?" Kim joined Peter in glaring at Nathan.

"I get that you think you're helping, but this isn't the kind of situation you can just fix," Peter said, his tone a cool firm one that Kim couldn't recall him ever showing before. "And we're getting out of here."

Grabbing Kim's arm, Peter ran towards the kitchen, only to be taken by surprise when he was pulled to the side by another figure. He was about to fight the new attacker off when he turned around and realised that he had been grabbed by Claude, who placed an urgent hand over his mouth while shooting a glare at Kim, who was still holding onto Peter's arm. For a few moments the three stayed in silence as Nathan ran through the apartment, looking uncertainly out of the window before he moved back out of the apartment, leaving the trio to exchange uncertain looks for a few moments before Claude stepped away from them.

"He's gone," the invisible man said, nodding at the other two as he walked up to Peter's fridge.

"Thanks," Peter said, deciding to say nothing as the other man took a bottle out of the fridge and twisted the cap off. "Help yourself."

"This your place?" Claude asked as he indicated an area that seemed to be a library.

"Yeah," Peter said.

"Guy with family connections like yours could do a lot better," Claude mused.

"Left the family business," Peter replied. "I'm a nurse now."

"Nurse who's an empath; very cute," Claude said as he studied the beer in his hand.

"Empath?" Kim repeated. "Isn't that some whole thing about sensing emotions from Star Trek?"

"One version," Claude nodded. "This one just means he meets people and copies 'em if they do somethin' interestin'."

"And what exactly am I?" Kim asked.

"Best term is natural survivalist; you automatically learn everythin' you need to know to keep yourself alive."

"Really?" Kim looked uncertainly between Claude and Peter.

"Well… that makes sense," Peter nodded as he looked at her. "It's like we guessed; you automatically know how to stay alive in trouble, and when I'm near you, your ability helps me just… know how to use my own abilities so that they can keep me alive."

"Another part of the whole gig; when she's in danger, fight-or-flight response goes through the roof."

"Right; good to know…" Kim nodded, before looking tentatively over at Claude. "So, that… I mean, I guess it explains why you were asking about my marks in class, but if I'm meant to be able to learn everything, why do I have trouble with Home Ec.?"

"Trade-off," Claude shrugged as he took another sip of his beer. "You've got a whole bunch of crap brewin' in your head all at once, some things just get left to the side because you don't need them as much."

"I don't need Home Economics?" Kim shook her head in confusion. "Geography and English are considered more essential to my survival than knowing how to cook?"

"Could be useful for you to be able to work out where you are with some knowledge of geography, and English gives you various ideas about how people tick that could help you talk your way out of a crisis, but seriously, when do you need to know how to cook?" Claude pointed out. "Either you're here in the city and you can get a half-decent meal with a phone call or a quick trip to the supermarket, or you're out in the wild and have to focus on just finding some kind of animal or plant you're fairly sure won't kill you."

"…OK," Kim nodded once again. "That's… a gross way to look at it, but I get it."

"And talking of getting things, maybe you could clear up what you're doing here?" Peter said, looking impatiently at Claude. "Considering that you're the one who said we shouldn't look for you any more?"

"Yeah, well," Claude said as he examined an old inhaler on a shelf before turning back to Peter. "I'm not very much of a people person, but I'm certain I'm not gonna let you kill 'em all. You seem pretty sure about that pending apocalypse of yours."

"Unless we can stop it," Peter affirmed.

"Without her?"

"We're already agreed that me being his 'training wheels' for the rest of our lives isn't really an option," Kim said, exchanging a brief glance with Peter to reassure each other that they weren't doing this because they didn't like each other's company. "If you don't want me here while you're training Peter… I'll leave."

"You're going to be going through a lot," Claude observed with a slightly mocking smile. "You might want to reconsider dying; hell of a lot easier."

"I can handle it," Peter said firmly.

"You realise that if this is goin' to work, she can't stick around?" Claude indicated Kim as he finished the beer.

"We get that," Kim nodded. "Just… drop me off, let us stay in touch, and then you can… get on with it."

"Fair enough," Claude nodded as he indicated the door. "Come on; I'll steal us a cab and we can get on with this."

It wasn't the most ringing endorsement in Peter, but at least it was a step in the right direction in terms of helping Peter get a better handle on his abilities.