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AN: We start with a brief look at Hiro, Ando, Ron and Rufus's last few moments in the future, but then it's back to events in the present.
The Not-So-Average Girl
Even with Doctor Suresh and the man in purple desperately pressed against the door of the former storage room, whatever was going on outside was clearly causing a lot of damage as Peter and the others fought against what was apparently the version of Sylar from this timeline. A part of Ron was still trying to process the idea that he had actually met his future self, but the rest of him was more focused on trying to contain his sheer panic at the notion that the two most powerful men on the planet were duking it out a few yards away with only a stone wall and a metal door protecting them from what was going on. As Rufus trembled in Ron's pocket, Ando took hold of Hiro's shoulders and spoke reassuringly to his friend in Japanese, his tone urgent but comforting.
"Get going, you idiots!" the man in purple yelled at them as he helped Mohinder hold the door shut. "Stop this fucking mess!"
"And protect Ted Sprauge!" Mohinder added even as his feet scrambled for purchase against the ground. "Whatever you do in the past, don't let Ted-!"
"Keep Ted Sprague safe, I got that, and we're working on it!" Ron called desperately back at the older men as he placed his free hand on Hiro's shoulder; the last thing he wanted was to get left behind when Hiro got over himself and managed to get his powers working again. "This is just-!"
Ando clapped a hand over Ron's mouth and shot him a brief warning glare before he fixed his gaze back on Hiro and said a final reassuring sentence that Ron still couldn't understand (he told himself not to take it personally; when the goal was to make Hiro feel more confident, of course the two old friends would talk in their native language).
"Good luck!" a voice called out to them. Ron just had time to look down and see what looked like a larger version of Rufus standing at their feet- the blue armour was cool but how could Rufus be talking like that?- before everything seemed to shift around them-
Suddenly there was silence around them apart from the tamer, more familiar sounds of cars going by far below and pigeons cooing from somewhere nearby. Looking around himself, Ron smiled with relief when he saw that he, Hiro, Ando and Rufus were now standing on the roof of a building in a clearly still-intact New York, with no sign of the devastation that had been so apparent in the future.
"Nice!" he turned to grin at Hiro, giving the shorter man a grateful thump on the back that sent Hiro stumbling forward a couple of steps. "Uh, sorry about that…"
"No apology," Hiro grinned over at Ron before he reached into his pocket and took out the comic book that the older Kim had given him. Once he was sure that he had Ron and Ando's attention, Hiro opened the comic to reveal a panel showing a man who had to be Hiro stabbing a figure that was definitely meant to be Sylar with the sword.
"Now hard part," Hiro said solemnly, as he reached up to push his glasses back on his nose. "We find Sylar."
"And Ted Sprague."
"Who?" Hiro and Ando looked at Ron in confusion.
"Ted Sprague," Ron repeated, briefly wondering how they'd missed that before concluding that they had both needed to focus on something during the chaos of the last few minutes, so they could have easily missed that last warning. "Don't know exactly who he is, but it sounded like he's got something to do with the upcoming explosion."
"That… something," Hiro nodded thoughtfully as he looked at Ron. "We seek Sylar; you call friends."
"On it," Ron said, hurrying into the house and grabbing a phone from the wall; he had no idea if this place would still have a workable phone, but it was better than just waiting around. Fingers crossed, he dialled Peter's cell number, and smiled in relief when it was picked up. "Hello?"
"Ron?" Peter's voice said from the other end. "Where are you?"
"Back in New York after one really freaky detour," Ron replied; talking about their trip to the future could wait until they were meeting up directly. "Oh, and we ran into your brother in Vegas."
"You met Nathan?"
"He helped us get inside Linderman's building and get our hands on the sword," Ron shrugged. "Seemed like a decent guy, really."
"That's… yeah," Peter replied awkwardly, before there was a series of sounds at the other end followed by a new voice on the other end.
"Hey, Ron."
"KP!" Ron grinned in relief before his smile faltered as he took in his friend's tone. "What's wrong?"
"Nothing's wrong, exactly," Kim replied quickly. "It's just that… well, Peter had a run-in with Sylar earlier, but he had to run for it after he took a beating-"
"He took a beating?" Ron repeated in surprise. "Couldn't he just-?"
"Imitating Claire is easier when she's there; as he puts it, it's hard to think positive when he's up against a total psycho," Kim cut Ron off, a slight edge of amusement in her voice that made Ron suddenly think of all the times Kim had teasingly talked about the latest crush of one of the other cheer squad members. "The point is that Peter's been kicking himself for not finding a way to stop Sylar right then, so now we're trying to work out what we should do next…"
"We might have… something on that, actually," Ron replied, fingers crossed that he'd interpreted that last warning from the future correctly. "Whatever's going to happen with the explosion, we think it might involve someone called Ted Sprague; does that name mean anything to you?"
"You're certain that this is a good idea?" Mohinder looked questioningly at Bennett as their small group sat around a table in the diner. "Walking right into their territory-"
"On your own terms," Bennett cut him off. "If we're going to find Sylar, we're going to need access to their resources; we can't fight a war on two fronts right now."
"You all realise we're getting into some really legally grey shit here, right?" Agent Hanson looked around at the five men. "Don't get me wrong, I'm not exactly happy that a private company has this level of access to the general public, but sending someone in to deliberately sabotage private property-"
"Is the best chance we have of stopping Sylar from killing any more innocent people," Mohinder said firmly. "We already know that these people are interested in my father's work, which means they will be open to a meeting, but bringing anyone else along is too great a risk."
"And you're sure that wearing a wire isn't going to set something off?"
"Not if we're careful about it," Bennett nodded. "Any agent they might send to meet with Doctor Suresh… well, I won't deny we have a couple of tricky cases, but none of them would be qualified for this kind of meeting."
"Qualified?" Matt repeated.
"As an example, if he was going to be meeting with Elle Bishop I'd be concerned that she'd detect the electrical energy, but nobody would send that girl to make diplomatic contact with somebody."
"Girl?" Hanson repeated with a particular stare. "This company sends girls into the field?"
"Elle's in her twenties and has been trained in her ability since she was a child; she's hardly-"
"You're expecting someone that age to go up against people like-?"
"Sylar's a particularly exceptional case-"
"Can we talk about that after we've dealt with the real problem?" Matt interjected, shaking his head as he looked between the two with a brief smile before he looked at Mohinder with a more solemn expression. "Do you think you can even pull this off?"
"So long as the Company has nobody like yourself in their employ, I should be able to at least get inside," Mohinder nodded at Matt before he looked at Bennett. "They don't, do they?"
"Telepathy is one of those well-known powers that doesn't actually manifest that often," Bennett nodded. "Officer Parkman would be an… interesting asset if we managed to recruit him, and we've had some instruction in dealing with telepaths, but as far as I know we don't have someone like him on the payroll directly."
"You have instructions for dealing with people who can read minds?" Ted looked at Bennet in surprise. "How?"
"The default strategy is to train yourself to think in a language the other party can't understand," Bennett replied nonchalantly, before he turned his attention back to Mohinder. "But like I said, you shouldn't have to worry about that; your sole priority is to get in there and get access to the tracking system so that we can find Sylar before shutting it down."
"…Very well," Mohinder nodded grimly. "Let's-"
He was saved from delivering what in hindsight would have been a rather stupid attempt to sound 'badass' when his phone rang. Taking it out, he glanced at the number in surprise, but it didn't take long for him to decide to take it despite Bennett's warning glare.
"Peter?" he said in surprise. "Why are you calling?"
"Firstly, you should know that your apartment was attacked by Sylar last night."
"What?" Mohinder yelled, sitting up sharply in his chair, drawing anxious stares from the rest of the group.
"I managed to fight him off and get most of your research material out, but… well, I can't be sure if I left something behind, and I don't have time to search through all of this stuff, so I need to ask if there's anything here about someone called Ted Sprague."
If Mohinder hadn't already sat back down, he was sure that he would have fallen over when he heard Peter ask that question.
"Well," Kim looked at her two friends as they sat grimly around Peter's apartment, thinking about their latest revelations, "at least we know where that exploding man stuff fits into the picture."
"Except that we don't know if that's because I'm going to have trouble with this Ted guy's power, if Ted's going to have a meltdown on his own, or if…" Peter trailed off.
"Or if Sylar's going to take that particular power for himself," Claire finished grimly. "We've all seen him at least try to do it by now; we can say it."
Peter tried not to show his discomfort at that notion as he looked between the two girls. Considering what both could do, he knew that neither of them were exactly squeamish, but it was hard to shake the notion that he should be protecting them as the 'older' of their group no matter how they'd handled themselves so far.
"Look," Claire continued, "the point is that we know what we're dealing with now, so we can at least come up with a better plan than 'run away', right?"
"She's right," Kim nodded. "If we're dealing with a radioactive guy… OK, it's a problem, but at least we have options. If Claire can survive whatever radiation he or you end up putting out, she can probably… well, there's got to be some way to put him down without outright killing him, right?"
"And in my case you can probably take me out for a bit with something to the head," Peter observed, only to be met by a cool stare from the girls.
"You're… not seriously implying that we kill you, right?" Kim said.
"What? Look, we know from what you told me that a shot to the head isn't permanently fatal-"
"But I have to live with the memory of killing you?" Claire cut him off, looking at him with an earnest expression and the hint of tears in the corners of her eyes. "I… I can't do that…"
"Nobody does," Kim said, looking apologetically at the other girl. "But… well, we have to think about the bigger picture right now."
"How can you be so-?"
"I guess this is what keeps me alive right now," Kim cut Claire off, before she gave Claire a more hopeful smile. "We still have a chance to stop this before things get that bad, but we need to… be prepared for anything."
"…Right," Claire nodded before she looked over at Peter. "So what now?"
"Mohinder's keeping an eye on Ted Sprague with his new associates, which means that our goal right now has to be to find Sylar," Peter said.
"How?" Claire asked. "Didn't Mohinder say one of his team was in the FBI? If she can't find anything-"
"We have more government contacts than Mohinder," Peter pointed out.
Kim suddenly had a feeling that she knew what Peter was thinking, but she also wasn't sure if it was the right call. Nathan might have helped Hiro and Ron in Vegas, but there was still something about that flying man she didn't entirely trust…