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Feedback: Always appreciated.
AN: To confirm, Nikki/Jessica, D.L. and Micah's timeline is still basically the same as it was in the show (apart from how Nikki/Jessica never had that run-in with Matt when stealing diamonds as Matt never went private security but has been working with Audrey throughout). There will only be a brief reference to them here, but I thought I should clarify that they have still been active elsewhere during these events; it just felt better to focus on those whose lives have been changed by the addition of Kim and Ron to the equation.
As projected, this is basically the penultimate chapter; once this fic is complete after the next chapter, the series will be going on hiatus so I can finish other projects, but assured I have plans for the sequel that include giving DL, Nikki and Micah a bigger role.
The Not-So-Average Girl
"You're sure that this is going to work?" Kim asked Mohinder as she walked alongside him and Officer Parkman towards the Primatech building. She had been allowed to borrow one of Agent Hanson's suits, and had done up her hair in a manner that she felt made her look a bit older, but at this point she was just hoping she wouldn't make a fool of herself.
"I informed them that Molly was responding well to the treatment but recommended a follow-up before she attempted to use her powers again," Mohinder explained with a reassuring smile. "Since they already expect me to come back and most people should have left by now anyway, all we have to do is get inside, get through the desk, and then get to Molly's rooms."
"She'll be safe to leave once she's… can I say cured?" Matt asked.
"Molly's not a Patient Zero or anything like that right now; from what I can determine the virus that infected her is a relatively contained mutation that occasionally occurs in people who manifest more… subtle… abilities," Mohinder explained. "I was specifically conceived and born so that my antibodies could be used to save my sister when she contracted a similar virus due to her own abilities, and have every reason to believe I have the right antibodies to treat her condition."
"Sounds… workable," Kim nodded cautiously at him, hoping she wasn't putting her faith in a scientist who was just grasping at straws.
"You're sure she'll be safe if we take her away?" Matt asked.
"I wouldn't have suggested this if I didn't think Molly would be fine," Mohinder assured him. "Just stay alert and we can do this."
Matt nodded, looking anxiously around himself as they walked even as he kept up the pace. Kim understood his anxieties, considering that there was a big difference between her past confrontations with troublesome people and actually entering a 'villain stronghold' (as Ron might put it), but at this point the best thing to do was go with it and hope for the best. She felt slightly guilty for leaving Peter behind, but she was satisfied that he still had Claire to help out if anything happened.
I make it easier for Peter to stay alive, but Claire gives him a reason to stay alive… and that's not just because of her powers…
Kim wondered if she should find it worrying that she was focusing on her friends' potential love lives when they had so many other things to be worried about right now, but she chose to view it as a good sign. Whatever was going on in her life right now, she still wanted at least the option of going back to school once this was all over, and part of that meant keeping hold of a childish interest in her friends' love lives.
"You know," Kim said as they approached the door, "as fancy as this place looks, I still find it hard to believe that anyone could just use a twelve-year-old girl as a tracking system; these people must have really screwed priorities."
"To say the least," Mohinder said, looking cautiously up at the building. "I can understand wanting to keep her safe when Sylar is still a factor, but from everything I've heard, they clearly intend to keep her here long-term…"
"Let's just do this," Matt said, anxiously flexing his shoulders as he looked up at the building one last time before they walked inside. The building itself seemed almost disturbingly empty, but in a dark way Kim had to admire the scale of the architecture around them. The elegant black marble of the entrance created a suitably intimidating presence, but at the same time it seemed so open that you wouldn't think this was a secret base for an organisation hunting superhumans even if you thought that was an option.
"OK, you're up," Kim whispered over to Matt. "Get a read on someone and take it from there; remember, we need to get upstairs discreetly and quickly."
To his credit, Matt didn't have a problem taking Kim's suggestion, recognising that her ability made her best-suited for keeping track of what had to be done. After looking around for a moment, the telepathic cop focused his gaze on a security guard talking with another member of the building staff. Nodding in resolution, Matt walked up to the guard, Kim and Mohinder close behind.
"Stanley," Matt said, his tone casual as he addressed a bald man in a suit. "Hey, man, I was just out for dinner and realised I forgot my ID; could you buzz us through?"
"I don't know you," the guard said.
"It's Matt from accounting on 3-6," Matt responded with a sarcastic laugh. "What are you talking about? We just went out and decided it was better to get it now-"
"I'm going to need to see your ID, buddy," the guard cut Matt off.
"Stan, come on, buddy, you don't remember?" Matt said promptingly, still laughing as though at some memory. "Remember on the weekend, I ran into you at the, um… at that restaurant?" He paused for a moment and then continued. "Shopsins, right? You introduced me to Tanya."
Kim suddenly found herself hoping that telepathy wasn't a common superpower; Bennett had mentioned that he'd been taught how to deflect mind-readers by thinking in other languages, but would a standard guard be prepared for something like that?
"You OK, Stan?" Matt continued, chuckling slightly as he lowered his voice. "Remember? You were really drunk. And you were worried about people finding out about the ... uh, you know, the…"
Kim didn't quite hear what Matt whispered as a follow-up (she guessed that she could if she tried, but it wasn't relevant right now), but it was enough to prompt the guard to wave them through the gate with embarrassed hopes that they might have a good day. Kim and Doctor Suresh nodded in acknowledgement as they followed Matt through the barrier and up to the elevator. At that point it was simple enough for Mohinder to enter his own code for the elevator and wait for the doors to open, leaving the three of them free to enter.
"To confirm, why did we have to do this when you've got a reason to be here?" Kim glanced at Doctor Suresh as he pressed the button for the relevant floor.
"Because if I announced my presence in advance then the officials I've already spoken to would be keeping a close eye on me while I'm working," Mohinder said as the elevator began to move. "With few people in the office at this hour, we have a better chance of staying under the radar until we've retrieved Molly and gotten out."
"And using your code wouldn't do that anyway?"
"None of the people I've made contact with should have any reason to look at the security access log right now," Mohinder assured her. "We'll be fine until we can confirm Molly's condition and leave once her final treatment is completed."
"Right," Kim nodded in cautious acknowledgement as she waited for the door to open. This was still a bit of a risk, but she acknowledged that Mohinder's assessment seemed accurate enough. So long as nobody here knew that he was working with them, they should still be able to get Molly Walker and go…
Once they left the elevator, Mohinder led the way to a laboratory that connected up to a smaller room that put Kim in mind of a children's ward in a standard hospital. Sitting at a desk colouring quietly was a small brown-haired girl, about half Kim's height, with long brown hair and wearing a light green shirt under a dark jacket.
"Doctor Suresh?" the girl looked curiously at him.
"Hello, Molly," Mohinder smiled at her as he indicated the other two. "These are friends of mine; this is Kim Pierce, and this is-"
"Officer Parkman?" Molly interrupted, looking at Matt with a smile
"Molly?" Matt returned her smile with one of his own.
"You know each other?" Mohinder looked between them in surprise.
"And you didn't mention it earlier?" Kim gave Matt a critical glare.
"I… guess I thought it was a coincidence," Matt said with an awkward shrug, even as he smiled at Molly. "But I should have known you'd be remarkable enough to be involved in all this."
"You said you'd keep me safe," Molly smiled at the technically ex-cop.
"That's right," Matt nodded, before indicating Kim. "And Kim here's been helping me work out the best way to do that."
"It's kind of my thing," Kim said, picking up on Matt's intentions as she grinned at Molly. "Like yours is finding people."
"Really?"
"Really," Kim nodded. "Put me in any dangerous situation, and I always know how to find my way out of it just on instinct."
"Anything?"
"Whether it's passing a tricky test or being shoved into a road, I'll get through it like that," Kim affirmed, snapping her fingers as she smiled at Molly. "And right now, Doctor Suresh just needs to finish your treatments and we can get on with getting you out of here."
Staring at the TV screen as he sat in his apartment, while Claire rested in his bed after a stressful few hours, for the first time in his life Peter had no idea how to feel about his brother's success. The reports of the landslide victory would have been good news under normal circumstances, but considering what Kim had heard about Nathan and his mother agreeing with the plan to just let the city get blown up, at this point Peter was automatically uncomfortable with the idea of putting Nathan in a position of power. Maybe the plan Kim had overheard them discussing would pay off and they'd be able to 'rebuild the world' after the devastation, but if peace could only be achieved through mass murder then as far as Peter was concerned that was already too high a price to pay…
The sound of his phone ringing was actually welcome to Peter at this point; even if this was about Sylar or the explosion, at least those were easier to face than his rapidly-disintegrating opinion of his brother.
"Ted Sprague is dead."
"What?" Peter yelled, standing up in shock as he heard Agent Hanson's voice at the other end of the line. "How did- I thought we were taking care?"
"Don't ask me how Sylar found him, but he intercepted the convoy and literally turned the whole transport truck upside down," Hanson replied. "Only good news is that he missed the Haitian; apparently the guy lost consciousness when Sylar attacked the truck, and apparently he needs to be actively concentrating to stop someone as powerful as Sylar is now from doing anything."
"That's… something, I suppose," Peter said. He felt a bit cold thinking of it this way, but the idea of Sylar acquiring the Haitian's power was definitely not something he wanted to face. "How is he?"
"The Haitian? Banged up a bit, but doctors tell me he should be back to normal in a couple of weeks. Of course, from everything we've heard we don't have that long before everything goes boom, and now we've got a guy in play who might actually want to do that…"
"And people who are actively interested in setting that up," Peter observed grimly. "I don't suppose we can… do something about that?"
"Problem with criminals like Linderman is that they're very careful," Hanson responded apologetically. "It's like what you've heard about Capone; even if we're all fairly sure what Linderman's doing, we don't have any concrete proof of any of it, and that's before you bring in the superhuman angle."
"No way to prove any of that without it getting complicated, huh?"
"I don't exactly like what Bennett's old employers are doing to people, but I can get behind the idea that keeping these powers secret from the general public is a good call," Hanson affirmed.
"In other words, right now it's still on us to stop the explosion and deal with Linderman?"
"Looks like it," Hanson confirmed. "Right now we're still waiting for Doctor Suresh's team to finish up at Primatech; if we can at least get that tracker girl out of there we'll have more options, both when it comes to keeping people safe and dealing with Sylar."
"Right," Peter nodded. "I'll keep an eye on Claire and get ready; we still have that picture of Sylar facing me somewhere to deal with, but if we can be ready for that…"
"Again, we'll take it as it comes and hope for the best," Hanson agreed. "I'll let you know if I find anything at my end, so long as you do the same."
"Right," Peter said before he ended the call and turned his thoughts to this new knowledge. If Sylar had taken Ted's powers, the most obvious question right now was how he had found out about Ted. Unfortunately only one explanation was coming to Peter right now; Sylar had used Isaac's ability and painted where to go to find what he was looking for. Peter might try the same method to find Sylar right now, but he couldn't be sure if he'd paint where Sylar was at the present (based on when he might finish such a painting) or where he'd be at some future moment, and with the explosion this close based on Hiro's information they couldn't afford for him to miss the deadline.
Right now, the best chance of finding Sylar was the little girl Mohinder had told him about; either she could direct Peter to Sylar herself, or she could teach Peter how to use her power to find the villain. The doctor had assured them that Molly's treatment should be going well, but he still had to actually get her out of the building, and even if he found Sylar there was still the question of Linderman…
"You're responding well to the treatment," Mohinder said, studying the test tube that now held a sample of Molly's blood. "The important question is how are you feeling, Molly?"
"Good, I guess," Molly said, looking up from a book full of pictures she'd been looking over with Kim. "As long as I don't get any more shots."
"Yeah, those are never fun," Kim smiled at the little girl.
"Unfortunately, we need to continue the treatments until you have a sufficient amount of my antibodies in your blood," Mohinder said.
"I'm all better," Molly said, taking a thumbtack out of the glass cup and turning to the map book on another part of the desk. "See? Look what I can do? Just like before I was sick; I think about someone, and I know where they are in my head."
"Molly…" Mohinder began cautiously. "If your power has returned, we can stop the bogeyman so he never hurts anyone else. Can you think about him? Show me where he is?"
"You sure you want to know?" Molly asked.
The response was interrupted when the door to the lab opened and a grey-haired man in a dark suit walked in. Kim had a brief sense that she had seen this man somewhere before, but pushed that thought back as she moved to stand between this man and Mohinder; they couldn't afford to have the doctor forced to leave right now.
"Doctor Suresh," the man said with an insincere smile that put Kim immediately on edge. "I have to tell you, I was surprised to see you drop in unannounced."
"And I'm surprised to learn that you were paying enough attention to realise I was here," Mohinder said, trying to keep his own tone lighter.
"Just a matter of looking at the right time," the other man said before he turned to look at Matt. "And who is-?"
Seizing the momentary distraction, Kim stepped forward and grabbed the grey-haired man's arm, twisting it behind his back with one hand and instinctively grabbing at a point on his neck with the other. Cut off mid-sentence, the man fell silent and his mouth opened in a silent yell, unable to vocalise the shock he must be feeling.
"And you should know better than to interrupt a doctor when he's treating a patient," Kim said, working to keep her own voice light as she looked over at the others. "We'll just wait outside until you're done, OK?"
"Right," Matt said, nodding in agreement as he followed her example, placing a hand on the grey-haired man's other shoulder and leading him out of the lab. "We'll be right outside; don't worry about us."
Molly smiled in innocent reassurance at Matt as he and Kim led the new arrival back into the thankfully-deserted corridor, but Kim's full attention was on the man in front of her. It had been a long time since her mother signed her up for those martial arts classes, but Kim guessed her ability helped her remember even the details she hadn't fully realised she was being taught at the time. Once the door to the lab was closed behind them and they were a satisfactory distance away from the girl and the doctor, Kim adjusted her grip on the man's neck, his silent pain audible once again.
"What the Hell?" he looked at her in rage. "That was-!"
"We're taking Molly out of here as soon as she's well, and then we will deal with Sylar," Kim stared resolutely at the grey-haired man.
"We?" the man repeated, looking sceptically between her and Matt. "You two and Doctor Suresh?"
"It's more involved than that, and if you think I'm giving you anything more you're not as smart as you people are meant to be," Kim said.
"You already made a bad call when you came after us rather than our colleagues," Matt said, smirking slightly at the other man.
"You were coming after the key to stopping Sylar-!"
"Molly can help us find Sylar, but that's not the same as stopping him," Matt corrected. "Believe me, we've got more people capable of dealing with Sylar when the time comes… and I have a feeling that you're about to lose the man who's been leading this particular campaign."
"Linderman doesn't go down that easily-"
"And from what I can hear these people are really determined," Matt said with a slight smirk.
"Talking of people being determined, how many people are here in this building right now?" Kim asked, giving Matt a brief glance.
"Not many," Matt said, anticipating Kim's request. "There's a long-term security staff on the lower levels, but Molly's the most important thing here and she's considered 'self-sufficient'…"
The glare Matt directed at Thompson as he spoke those words was enough to assure Kim that her next call was the right one. Kim released her grip on his neck and delivered a powerful punch to the man's face, sending him to the ground in an unconscious heap.
"That was deserved, right?" she asked.
"Yeah," Matt nodded. "And we'd gotten everything we needed out of him anyway."
"Does that anything to do with those 'really determined' people you mentioned?"
"Thompson saw a man and a woman on the security cameras heading for Linderman's office, but he decided to check us out first," Matt explained. "I took a quick check of their minds once I knew there was something to look for-"
"You heard them from this far away?" Kim looked curiously at Matt.
"I could guess where they were going and I knew what I was looking for," Matt said. "I wouldn't like to try and do that in a crowded area, but in an empty building like this, it's not that hard to focus on two people if I know where they are and have an idea what to look for."
"Such as people who aren't meant to be here," Kim nodded in understanding. "So right now it's basically us, Mohinder, Molly, and these people who want to deal with Linderman?"
"There might be a couple of other people with Linderman, but from what I'm hearing…" Matt shrugged. "I wouldn't say I'm getting the full picture, but I'm fairly sure there are more people here who don't like Linderman than there are people who do."
"Good," Kim smiled at him. "Time to update the others, and then shall we see if we can make a few new friends?"