Act your age

"A playground? Are you serious? I haven´t been to a playground since I was like … four."

"Me neither." Mohinder agreed. "But this time we have a reason to be here. The kids of some very influential people will be here. They come here with their nannies."

"And?"

"Do you remember the device I invented that can disable the security system of the White House?"

"That little button that is only a button?"

"That´s what makes it so unsuspicious."

"I also remember that you dismissed the idea because there was no way to bring it into the White House."

"Exactly. Now there is a way to bring it in."

"Which way?"

"The kids. You see that boy with the dog over there? That´s the son of the head of Secret Service. If we get this boy to give his daddy a present from us … all we have to do is wait until he enters the White House."

"How do we bring a kid to take something from us. These nannies will surely watch what their brats are doing."

"Sure. If we would give them something. But we won´t."

"But …"

"Another kid will give them something. That´s totally unsuspicious."

"How long do you want to talk into some kid before it will go over to them to give them some stuff some random guy gave him?"

"I don´t plan to." Mohinder said and lay a hand on Sylar´s shoulder, smiling at him in a way that couldn´t mean anything good. At last the killer got his drift.

"Oh you´ve got to be kidding me." he said.

"I´ll distract the nannies." Mohinder promised. "And you … you make friends with the kids … Gabby."

Sylar had to bite his own tongue to not to say something inappropriate. Instead he pointed at Mohinder in a warning way. "If you ever call me that again …"

"I know." Mohinder padded Sylar´s shoulder and placed the device in the killer´s hand. It was disguised as a little toy frog.

Sylar gave him an asking gaze but Mohinder pretended not to see it. Instead he made his way over to the bench of the nannies. When he looked over his shoulder, he saw Sylar briefly ruffling the hair of one kid and then vanishing behind a tree. A moment later the kid he´d touched suddenly had a twin brother. Mohinder was satisfied. The first half of his plan was in motion.

He reached the bench and sat down next to the two nannies of these very important kids. The two of them were quite busy talking about their boyfriends and some bitch that was called Nadine. From time to time they would raise their voices and yell for the kids not to kill or mutilate each other in their games.

Mohinder tried his best to make some small talk to the nannies, while little Sylar approached the kids and their dog. In the middle of his lecture about genetic engineering, he noticed some strange talk that went on between Sylar and the kids. Of course he couldn´t hear the words, but little Sylar had crossed his arms and obviously pouted. What the hell was going on there? The eyes of kid-Sylar met his and there was a demanding look in them.

"Uhm …" Mohinder turned to the nannies. "Would you excuse me for a moment? My … kid seems to need my presence."

With that he hurried over to the tree, behind which little Sylar had vanished. When he reached it, he was facing a very grown up and very angry Sylar.

"What´s the matter?" Mohinder asked. "Did you give the button to them?"

"Not yet." Sylar replied, obviously very busy to talk in a civilized tone. "They said they would give their daddy my present. If I …" and here he broke up and closed his eyes.

"If you what?"

"Oh, kids can be so cruel." Sylar breathed.

"What did they want from you?"

"So malicious. So … disgusting."

"Sylar! What did they want from you?"

Instead of answering Sylar raised his finger as if he demanded attention. His gaze was dark. He pointed at the two kids on the other side of the playground, before he changed back into the kid he had impersonated. When he led the way, Mohinder could only follow him.

They reached the two kids and their dog. Little Sylar placed himself next to the dog, his arms crossed and his legs stiff. Mohinder looked down and saw that there was a turd. Obviously from the dog.

"I don´t understand." he said looking from one kid to the other.

"Who´s this Gabby?" the little girl asked. "Is that your manny?"

"Yes, he is." Gabby answered. "Tell him what you told me."

"Fluffy ate my ring." the little girl whined. "Now he made ah-ah. My mommy said everything that goes in comes out in the ahah. Is my ring in there?"

Mohinder looked at the turd and swallowed. "That´s … possible." he admitted. "Why don´t you just look?"

"I´m not gonna touch that." her little brother cried disgusted.

"Me neither." the little girl agreed and closed her nose.

"Gabby said he wants us to bring something to our daddy." her brother recalled. "He shell do it."

"You see?" Gabby looked at Mohinder with fury in his eyes.

"But kids." Mohinder went down to his knees, smiling at the kids. "You can´t demand payment when someone brings you a present."

"The present is not for us." the boy argued. "He wants us to deliver it for him. So I can make him pay me for it."

Mohinder caught a dark glare from little Sylar. See what you got me into, it asked. Mohinder could only sigh. Such a smart-ass and he was only six.

"If you want me to give that thing to my daddy, you find my sister´s ring." the little smart-ass demanded.

"Why don´t you do it, uncle Mo?" little Sylar asked with a grin.

"Are you crazy?" Mohinder cried in disgust but got only a grin in response.

"It was your idea." little Sylar reminded him.

Mohinder contained his disgust and made himself think clear. "All right." he said. "Let´s work this out like adults okay? One of us has to do it. I mean it´s just a little heap of …"

"Dog shit." Sylar finished the sentence for him.

Mohinder swallowed again, when his eyes fell on the little brown thing. He didn´t want to look at it but he couldn´t help. At last he forced his eyes away from it and back at little Sylar. God, in this moment, the arrogant look in the kid´s face would have been the best argument for corporal punishment.

"Tell you what." Mohinder said. "We decide that like civilized and grown up men. Absolutely fair. What do you say?"

Little Sylar thought about it but then rolled his eyes and nodded. "All right. But only this one time."

"Promise."

"Okay then." Sylar groaned and presented his fist. Mohinder did the same.

"Ro-sham-bo." they spoke simultaneously and quickly presented their hands. They had both chosen paper. They instantly did it again. This time Sylar made a hollow fist and Mohinder again a flat hand. He covered Sylar´s fist with his hand, showing that he´d won. One more time. Again they both made a flat hand.

"All right." Mohinder said satisfied and stood up. "I won. You go ahead."

"What?" little Sylar cried. "That´s not fair. We tied."

"Right. We tied two times and one time I won. Means I´m ahead of you. Now don´t be such a bad loser."

"We tied two times and one time you did this one …" Sylar cried imitating Mohinder´s gesture from before.

"One time I made paper covers well. Hello, what is the score after that? I don´t know how you play this game but where I come from …"

"Where you come from they play unfair." Sylar cried.

"That´s one to nothing for me. You can turn that around as often as you like, that´s the way it is."

"I never play with you again." Sylar cried and stamped his foot to the ground.

The two real kids stood between them and watched the whole thing rather baffled.

"You´re acting ridiculous." Mohinder cried. "You don´t even have to touch it. Use your … you know." he made some pendulum movements with his finger to indicate Sylar´s telekinesis.

The gaze he got in response was still dark but at least the kid was considering the idea. At last little Sylar rolled his eyes and groaned.

"All right, all right." he said and faced the turd again.

The two real kids stepped back a little, grimacing in disgust. Sylar reached out his finger and let it hover over the turd. Something happened inside of the brown heap. Mohinder leaned in a little closer, out of pure curiosity. He better had not. The next moment the turd literally exploded and the two of them stood there covered in spray-shit.

"Eeeww." the two kids made. "That´s nasty."

"It stinks." the little girl commented. "If my ring stinks like that too, I don´t want it anymore."

"Come on." her brother said. "We go to the swings. I push you."