Peter Petrelli

San Ribero

"I don't think I can do it!" he growled, the strain of the exercise nearly draining him. He sat on a chair in one of the back rooms of the temple. Alphonse stood nearby, holding a cane. The little kid had one hell of a swing. He slammed it again into Peter's back.

"You must focus, Peter! How can you do this in a fight if you can't do it now?" he pleaded with Peter. "Think of Claire."

Now that was a desperation move. As if it wasn't enough to give him the one ability he was afraid of, induced radioactivity, now he's going to taunt him. Peter struggled under the pressure. Twice now, Alphonse struck him hard enough to knock him out to keep him from exploding, and he still couldn't do what was wanted of him. "It's not one of my capabilities! You were wrong about me! I can't do it!"

"Peter, open you eyes," Alphonse said, much gentler.

This is a trick. Peter told himself, but he could help himself. He knew it was going to bad. The whole world around him had changed. Now he sat in his own apartment, fixated on what stood before him. Claire was bound and gagged and someone was holding a gun to her head. Who it was didn't matter; this was proved by the mask. "Why are you doing this?"

The masked man asked, in Alphonse's voice. "If you don't do what I've told you, I will kill her, Pete. If I put one bullet in her head, there is no coming back for her." Peter shook his head. "Plus, if that isn't enough to convince you, I have Heidi, Monty, and Simon back here, too."

"You sick, twisted…"

"One," Alphonse said, starting the last countdown. He'd done this kind of thing before. Pete knew he only had till the count of three, then poor Claire would die.

"It's can't be done," Pete said, tears flowing down his cheeks. Through his blurred vision, he saw he was glowing three, maybe four, times as much as before. Explosion was eminent.

"Two."

Peter slammed his eyes shut, focusing on that one little thing Alphonse told him about, and he felt it. It contracted like a muscle flexing. It was a feeling Peter knew well. It happened like when he used an ability. He felt free.

He opened his eyes, amazed to see he was no longer near exploding. He wasn't even glowing anymore. The room was back to the way it was. He feel to his knees, thanking God to be alive, for the world to still exist , and for everything to be in place. Peter couldn't stand, could only hold himself up on all fours. Alphonse lowered himself down and put an arm around his shoulders. "I'm sorry it came to that, Pete, but Claire was never in any real danger. It was an illusion, one of my many gifts, but you don't have to worry about it ever again. Purging yourself is like a working a muscle, it gets easier every time."

"That doesn't make up for what you did," Pete said through his tears. "I hate you."

"Hate is a natural emotion," Alphonse said. "It will force you to do everything you can to the highest of your abilities. If you must hate me, then so be it." Alphonse left Peter to be by himself.

As soon as he was gone, Elle came in, thanks to Noel's phasing. She went to him and helped him to his feet. "How did it go?"

"Horrible," Pete said, put an arm around Elle's neck to steady himself. The world was swaying under his feet, and he was afraid that if Elle moved to far away he would just collapse. "I can do it though. I never want to go through that again."

Elle patted his chest. "You never will, Pete. Not ever again." She helped him out of the room. "But it needed to be done, you know that, right?" He nodded. Of course he knew that. If he couldn't get rid of dangerous powers like induced radioactivity, he could explode again, and this time, Nathan wouldn't be there to help him.

"I need to sleep," he said, already half-way to dream land.

"We're almost to your room," she said in comforting tones. "Just a few more steps."

Senator Fred Armstrong

Hart Center, New York

He sat behind the desk of former director, Nathan Petrelli, with his feet on top of it, smiling as he spoke into the speaker phone. "You know the drill: any confirmed mutant who doesn't cooperate, kill them." Armstrong pushed a button, cutting of the soldier.

Ah, the power of it all was so seducing, and he didn't even bother trying to distance himself from it. It was the greatest thrill to have so many lives ended at your command. There were up to fourteen confirmed mutant kills, and growing.

Armstrong stood, ready for his own days work. The Bennet girl has ties to the Petrelli brothers, and more than likely has information as to their whereabouts. He grabbed his 'special' bag from under the desk and made his way to interrogation room number four, whistling a tune from a Disney movie, which one he couldn't remember.

He opened the door slowly, letting her relish being in the presence of such a great and powerful man. She was pretty, but no where near what some of the men where saying about her. Armstrong smiled at her, pleasantly, and she spit at him. "Not very becoming of you," he said, opening his case. "You're going to do me a little favor."

"Screw you," Claire said.

Armstrong grinned. He loved to break the spirit of the young. "You're going to tell me everything you know about Peter Petrelli, starting with what powers he's capable of and where he is."

"Why is that?"

He lifted a small hook from the case, freshly polished since the last time it was used. "Because I'm going to put you through so much pain, you'll wish you could die."

Heidi Petrelli

Hart Center, Seattle

Viral sat behind the desk, his face lit up by the monitor of the computer. He was so good at what he did, Heidi thought it wouldn't hurt to have a look into Armstrong's personal files. "This reminds of my days before the Agency," he said without looking up. "If you want, I can drop a couple of viruses, and we can make this little flashback complete?"

"No, I just want to know what they're up to," Heidi said.

"That'll take a couple of….There, I'm in," Viral said. "He's got a number of files on various locations, people, and other such things. You want me to look for anything in particular?"

"Petrelli," she said. "I want to know everything he knows about us."

Viral typed a few things into the keyboard, and "Oh, hang on. I got a Claire Bennet. Her file is flagged as a top priority. Do you know her?"

Heidi's heart rate skyrocketed when he said that. "She's my step-daughter."

The once and future hacker went back to work. "It's all jumbled up, encrypted with a some kind of code."

"Can you crack it?"

Viral shook his head. "It's not a technical thing. It's something he did on his own. This is for his eyes only. However," he grinned, "it would only take a minute to make a siphon."

Heidi nodded, and Viral went to work. She looked at the clock. 6:13. Damn, she should have had a cup of coffee before coming in to work. Too late now.

"Crap," he said after a minute, causing Heidi's heart rate to jump another five or so beats per minute. "They have her in custody. She's up for interrogation about Peter Petrelli this morning. Armstrong's going to handle it himself. Oh….Oh."

Heidi glared into the side of his head. The look of disgust on her face was enough to tell her something was up. "Tell me right now."

"You see, he's got things planned for her that are, well, against the Geneva Convention, not to mention, unconstitutional."

Heidi fled the room. There was only way to get her step-daughter out without drawing attention to herself. Hiro Nakamura. Here's hoping he'll do it.

She forced her way into his and Ando's room. Hiro, as usual, sat awake, going through his notebook. He looked up when she came in the room. "Yes?"

Ever so polite, she thought. "I need you're help, Hiro. This has to be quiet, though. No one can know about this, if you should agree to do it."

Hiro stood, reaching for his sword. "Tell me and we'll see."

"My step-daughter, Claire, is going to be tortured in New York unless you can get her out." Heidi stopped to take a breath and stop her tears from coming out. She spent too many days crying as it is. "I don't have anywhere else to go." She shut her eyes. "There's no one left that can save her in time. I'm sorry I have to ask you to do this, Mr. Nakamura."

She opened her eyes, ready to go into a longer speech, but Hiro was gone, and Ando was looking at her like she were crazy. "Are you okay?" he asked.

Heidi nodded, thinking about Ando. She needed help to do this, and Ando was, at some point, in charge of the Japan branch of the Agency. "How would you like a job?" she asked, smiling.