The Princess and the Papoose - Part II

Prologue

Dark.

Dark could mean anything. But as far as Rain Ticket was concerned, dark wasn't right. Neither was this sitting position, or this hard chair that she was tied to.
"Hello, Rain." A sickly sweet voice came from the shadows.
"Who are you?" Rain's own voice was hoarse and shaky. "Where am I?"
A man's face became faintly visible, still camoflauged by the dim light. He was handsome, but an eerie glint haunted his eyes.
"As for where you are," he said, softly, "you tell me." He drew closer, and fear gripped at Rain's core like ice to a metal pole.
"Who am I?" A twisted grin played across his face. "You can call me Sylar."

As she dozed, the Papoose dreamt that the Princess was in terrible danger; the Purple Dragon from across the lake had kidnapped her and stolen her magic pouch!
When the Papoose woke up she was terrified and tried to warn the Princess of the danger, but the Princess wasn't there. The Papoose's terrible dream had come true!
She raced back to the Kingdom in search of a handsome Prince to rescue the Princess and take back her magic pouch.

Chapter 1

"Are you absolutely positive she's gone?" Dr. Mohinder Suresh was digging in his suitcase for some suitable daytime clothes. Across the room, Bethany Ticket paced, anxiously worrying aloud about her sister.
As far as they could tell, Rain Ticket had been abducted only hours earlier. Their best guess was that her abductor was a serial killer who had been persuing both girls for the past several days.
"Yes, I'm sure!" Bethany exclaimed, indignantly. "I know Rain, she would already have gotten in touch with us by now if she was alright!"
"I believe you," Mohinder assured her. He brushed past, toward the bathroom, with an armful of clothes.
"W-are you gonna, like, call the police or something?" Bethany called after him.
"We can't." Mohinder told her. "They wouldn't grasp the situation, and we could endanger a lot of people." He came back out, his shirt buttoned crooked and his collar turned up. He was looking for shoes.
"Then what are we gonna do?" Bethany asked.
"I have a friend who can help." He said.
"How? Who?"
"He was police officer." Mohinder explained. He glanced under the bed, managing to successfully locate his shoes. "Until his ability manifested. He might know what to do."
"What's his 'ability'?" Bethany asked, skeptically.
"He can manipulate thoughts."
"Oh. I'm sure that'll be helpful." Her sentence had sarcastic undertones.
Mohinder looked up. "I think you'd be surprised just how much it helps."
"Your...uh..." she motioned to her own shirt.
Mohinder looked down. His face reddened. "Oh, um, thank you."
While he fixed his buttons, Bethany made her way outside toward his cab, defying the pouring rain. When Mohinder followed he was on his cell. He unlocked the car, then they both climbed in and started off.
"Matt?" He said, turning the ignition. "This is Mohinder Suresh." He glanced at Bethany. "I need your help."

"You were very hard to catch." Sylar's calm voice flooded the large, mostly-empty room.
"Oh yeah?" So far, he hadn't hurt Rain at all, but that didn't make her any less terrified. "How's that?"
"For some reason my powers don't work when I'm with you and your sister." He cocked his head to the side. "Why might that be?"
"I don't know," Rain retorted. "You kidnapped me before we could figure it out."
Her captor's eyes flashed dangerously, as if to say 'don't toy with me!', but aside from that his expression never changed.
"I think you do know," he insisted. "Why else would you be here?"
She narrowed her eyes. "I think you know that I don't. That's one of your powers, isn't it? Knowing when someone's lying?"
He came closer. "Please, don't make me angry." That unkindly gentle tone was back. "Trust me, I'm not pleasant when I'm angry."
Rain shivered, whether from the cold or her fear or the chill of his words or a combination of the three, she couldn't tell.
"Thank you for establishing the ground rules," she muttered. "Would you please, sir, tell me where we are?"
"We're on a boat." He said. "A very pretty one, or at least it used to be. Now it's worn out and broken. Such a shame, too." He touched her hair, slowly and Rain mentally recoiled.
She said the first thing she thought to; "Why haven't you killed me yet?"
"I don' t know, really," he mumbled, absently. "Maybe I thought you could help me. It's silly, of course," he raised his eyebrows, "But you can' t blame a guy for trying!"
Rain's eyes widened, and she said, "You! You have that ability, right The...um...telekenesis!"
Sylar stared for a moment. "That's right."
"That means..." Rain's jaw dropped. "You could strangle somebody from across the room, right?"
"I don't see-"
"Could you?"
"I can. And have."
"Then that means..." Rain laughed. At herself. "That makes you the man from Bethany's dream. And I'm the one she was dreaming about."

Matt Parkman. Mid-30s, x-cop, constantly fighting for his life and freedom.
To Bethany, that was the perfect resume, but actually meeting Matt was a whole lot different than hearing Mohinder talk about him. Dr. Suresh had left out some things.
Matt was flighty. Jumpy. Not the kind of person Bethany really ever 'hit it off' with. But she needed his help, and anyone who was willing to face Sylar to help a stranger find her sister was good enough for her.
"Her name is Rain Ticket," Mohinder explained after a brief introduction. "We're fairly certain that Sylar took her alive."
"Do we know where she is?" Matt asked.
"No," Mohinder replied. "We were kind of hoping that you could help us with that."
"Well I can read minds but I can't find them." Matt grumbled. "Any clue-a lead or something-I dunno, might be helpful."
"I might have something," Bethany said quietly. "I didn't say anything before 'cause it's sort of weird."
Mohinder and Matt exchanged looks, and the latter said, "I'll take that."
"My dream last night...I saw Sylar carry rain off in the dark. He took her to like...I think it was a boat. I don' t know, it was really dark."
"Wait," Mohinder said. "Was it an old, rusted cruise liner with a...maroon tint?"
"I would have called it royal purple, but yeah. You know it?"
"Yes!" He exclaimed. "The S.S. Hope. It's been docked for as long as I've been here!"
"Longer than that." Matt said. "It was there when I brought my wife here, six or so years ago. It looked old even then."
"Think it's still there?" Bethany wondered aloud.
Mohinder hefted a sigh. "Let's find out."