Disclaimer: I don't Heroes, and the fundamental concept of this story was inspired by rain and leaves' "Four Months Later" and is used with his permission
Feedback: I'd like it, trust me
A Leap to Safety
As she sat impatiently in the van, her milkshake discarded as she impatiently drummed her fingers against the steering-wheel, Elle briefly allowed herself a moment to wonder how she'd allowed things to come this far; what was wrong with just smashing into the house and abducting that stupid blonde princess who'd left Peter so whipped he barely responded to her even after months in captivity?
Call her arrogant, but she just found something strange about a guy that determined not to go too far with her even when she offered him the chance to do so…
The sight of a black SUV driving down the street towards her car prompted a small, relieved smile from her; at least now it looked like she'd have something to do…
After waiting for a few crucial seconds to give Noah and Mohinder the chance to get out of the car- she'd rather not attack them in the car and risk zapping Mohinder; it might be fun, but her father would probably just get mad at her if she damaged their newest recruit-, Elle stepped out of the car, a broad smile on her face as she noted her old partner's expression as he saw her.
"Elle, huh?" Noah said, looking grimly at her.
"You know her?" Mohinder asked, his expression surprised even as he aimed his gun at Noah.
"Oh yeah," Noah said, nodding briefly.
"Hey, you!" Elle replied, smiling slightly as she held one hand before her back, generating electricity in it in preparation to knock the other man out (A bit excessive, she knew, but after the way things had gone the last time they'd met she'd take some particular pleasure in this…)
"Now!" Noah yelled, ducking down to the ground as she approached the car. Before Elle had time to process what had just happened- the fact that Mohinder had ducked as well raised a few questions-, a third figure had stepped out of the car, aimed a large gun at her, and fired at Elle, drenching her with water-
Elle screamed, her body reeling in agony as her own electricity suddenly seemed to envelop her, the water sending her power channelling through her own body rather than being released against her opponent. Before she could cut the power off, she vaguely registered a rubber-clad hand hurtling towards her face…
As Elle crumpled to the ground, Noah allowed himself a slight smile as he examined the rubber glove he'd quickly donned after Sandra had doused Elle with water; with her power temporarily turned on herself, she'd been distracted long enough for him to take her out with a quick punch while the glove protected him from the shock.
Before Mohinder could get back to his feet, Noah had already taken his next action, grabbing Mohinder's gun where the Indian scientist had dropped it and aimed it at his former colleague's head, a grim expression on his face.
"You lie to me, betray me, you come after my daughter!" Noah practically spat in Mohinder's face, his hands shaking slightly from rage as he aimed the gun at the shaken geneticist's face. "How'd you think it was going to end?"
For a moment the two men simply stared at each other, Noah's gaze harsh while Mohinder's made it clear that he wasn't sure how to feel about this situation, fear at the gun warring with uncertainty about whether Noah would actually shoot him-, until Sandra spoke at last.
"Noah…" she said, her voice low as she glared at her husband, her tone making it clear that she expected him to do what she would approve of rather than what he wanted to do at present…
Inwardly, Noah sighed in resignation.
He already knew he wasn't going to do… this… with Sandra here; it was the one side of her he'd promised long ago he'd never expose her to even if he'd erase her memory of it afterwards.
Changing tactics, he lowered the gun and fired a bullet into Mohinder's lower leg, leaving the man lying on the ground screaming and clutching his now-bleeding leg as he walked over to pick up Elle- no longer sparkling from her own electricity; one benefit of her power was that she could only consciously activate it rather than it kicking in on its own- before he turned back to the car, a grim expression on his face as he looked over at his wife (He wished he could take back what he'd done to Mohinder after seeing the expression on her face, but he'd been dealing with so much crap lately he was frankly relieved to have had a decent chance to vent it on something).
"This isn't going to be pretty," he said simply. "When we get back, I'm going to need Mr Muggles' doggie-bath."
While Noah planned his next action, he had no way of knowing that his daughter was currently sitting in the nearest airport after catching a rather expensive taxi ride, staring despondently at the files in her hands as she tried to figure out her next move.
Getting here without being found hadn't been particularly difficult, of course- her father might have been good at working with the Company but given his more limited resources these days Claire was confident that she'd managed to avoid him; she'd spent a few minutes running and had then caught a taxi from the street she'd stopped in all the way to the airport-; the problem now lay in what she'd do next.
So far the files on Adam Monroe hadn't turned up as much information as she'd hoped; there'd been some basic details about his powers- spontaneous cellular regeneration; nothing there that she didn't already know about him- and some points about his mental state- psychotic with a superiority complex-, but nothing specific that could help her work out what his next move was. Even if she'd been a psychologist, she hardly knew enough about his past to guess what he'd do next from that; the only thing here about Adam's life as a person was that he'd been sent to a prison facility thirty years ago for attempting to steal from the Company, and that was it.
So much for this being easy… Claire reflected, putting the paper she'd been looking over at the back of the file as she began to check over the rest of the paperwork. So far there was still nothing immediately relevant- a few more comments about Adam's mental issues, some possible references to his physical limitations (Particularly relating to the part of his brain that would need to be attacked to kill him for good)-, until her eyes fell on a file about a 'storage facility' located back in Odessa…
Listed as the location where 'Strain 138' would be transferred to 'after Monroe's actions'.
If that's not code for 'where to hide a world-destroying virus after some whackjob tries to steal it', I don't know what is, Claire reflected to herself, a smile crossing her face as she studied the information before her.
Paydirt.
It wasn't exactly conclusive, of course- there could be any number of 'storage facilities' in existence which would contain that virus that Peter had said Adam was looking for, and for all she knew 'Strain 138' might be some kind of prototype and the one Adam wanted was developed later-, but this was the only lead she had right now, so she'd just have to go with it and hope for the best.
Even if it wasn't the one she was looking for, it might have some kind of information there that she could use to find where the one she was looking for was located…
Standing up and taking one last glance into her wallet- she'd withdrawn a couple of hundred from an ATM before she'd caught the taxi; even if her father worked out where she'd been from her credit card activity he couldn't know where she'd gone from there- Claire headed for the Departures area to purchase a ticket to Odessa…
"So… you can have all the powers you want?" Molly Walker asked, looking with wide-eyed astonishment at Peter as he sat on the couch beside her, the former nurse looking at the young girl before him with a soft smile. Matt had filled Molly in on Peter's presence and his request while he'd been taking her home from school that day and Molly had swiftly confirmed her willingness to help Peter, commenting how cool it was that somebody that powerful wanted her help.
"Well, just the powers I've picked up from people I've met, but yeah, there's not much I can't do right now," Peter replied, smiling slightly back at Molly, unable to stop himself feeling at least slightly amused by her enthusiasm (He just wished he could stop picturing her with a rounder face, green eyes and darker hair; missing Claire was one thing, but imagining that was something he did not want to start thinking about!). "Anyway, I heard about your one, and… well, I figured, who better to learn about it from than from the expert?"
"Yeah, Matt said you think you've got it but you don't know how to use it yet?" Molly asked, looking curiously at him.
"Pretty much, yeah," Peter confirmed, nodding again as he flashed back to that brief sight of her during the Kirby Plaza battle- if he'd absorbed the intangible ability of that 'D.L.' guy who'd helped to save her it wasn't too out there to assume he'd absorbed Molly's ability as well- before he looked hopefully at her. "Think you can help me?"
"Sure," Molly replied, smiling back at him as she reached over to a nearby table and picked up a map of America that had been lying there, placing it between her and Peter before she passed him a pin. "It's easy; just think about the person you want to find, get a clear picture of them, and then…"
She shrugged slightly, evidently uncertain about how to describe how her power worked to another. "Look with your mind."
Peter nodded in understanding at her comment, taking the pin from her and sitting back slightly to better focus on the map.
"Start with someone when you know where they are; it might help you make sense of what you're seeing," Molly mentioned, prompting Peter to nod briefly as he closed his eyes, his focus automatically shifting to Nathan as a suitable 'test subject' even as he focused on the rush of almost paternal- uncle- older-sibling affection he'd felt for Molly after meeting the young, enthusiastic girl now sitting before him (His relationship with Claire made it pretty clear that thinking of himself as an uncle to a young girl wasn't the best move, and part of the reason he'd started to think paternally was because he'd started picturing Molly as something she wasn't)…
With that thought, it suddenly all seemed to… click… inside Peter's head; it was as though he could suddenly see the entire country laid out before him, just like it was on the map, with Nathan's presence a dot on that map, a dot that he automatically focused in on with greater and greater intensity, going from simply being aware of him being in New York to knowing the street, the house, the apartment, the room…
As his eyes opened once again, Peter smiled slightly at Molly, nodding gratefully at her.
"Got it," he said, his smile only increasing when Molly smiled back at him. "Thanks, Moll."
"You're welcome… Pete," Molly replied, smiling slightly back at him. Peter hadn't even realised he'd shortened her name when he'd said it, but now that he'd done it he had to admit that he'd rather liked the response it had prompted; she really was a nice kid…
Shaking that aside, Peter turned back to look at the map, forming a picture of Adam in his mind as he closed his eyes and raised the pin to begin his search.
It was a bit harder this time, of course- for a moment he felt as though he was 'sensing' Adam in two places at once, one on the ground and the other in the sky-, but he was soon able to establish that Adam was currently in motion, heading for some location in Odessa-
Peter couldn't stop himself; as soon as the word 'Odessa' had crossed his mind, he found himself thinking of Claire, of the moment when he'd first met her, bumping into him in the corridor as he looked at that display about Jackie Wilcox-
He froze.
For a minute there…
No, he thought, shaking his head slightly as he tried to shake off the sense of conviction he'd just felt then. That can't be right… it's impossible…
But he knew it was.
Somehow- he wasn't sure how he knew; maybe some kind of instinctive knowledge that came along with Molly's power, maybe something about Molly's power being used by him when he had access to other powers that might have 'helped' it-, he could sense some kind of…
Connection between Adam and Claire.
And it wasn't just because they were heading in the same direction- Claire seemed to be flying towards the same location where Adam was heading; he'd have been worried about that if it wasn't for the fact that there was still a good couple of hours before either of them would reach the place which seemed to be their destination-; this connection stretched back almost to the beginning of Claire's life…
Peter's hands clenched into fists as a resolution crossed his mind.
Something wasn't right here…
And he knew exactly where to go to get the answers.
As Elle blinked her way back to consciousness, she swiftly became aware of three things.
Firstly, she was soaking wet; someone had been spraying her with water to wake her up.
Secondly, she was tied to a chair by what appeared to be dog collars- dog collars were wrapped around her wrists, for God's sake!- with her feet in a bucket of water.
Thirdly, Noah 'Asshole' Bennett was standing before her, leaning casually against a counter, looking at her as though she was nothing more than a spoilt child he was going to lecture.
"I need to speak to your father," Noah said, his tone grim as he looked at her, giving no indication that he feared the consequences of what she could do.
Despite her waterlogged condition, Elle couldn't help but allow herself a slight smile; she was really going to enjoy this…
"What do you think this is; my first day?" she countered, raising her hands to generate the electric 'ball' she'd been planning to hit him with earlier-
Only to scream in agony as, once again, her powers suddenly turned against her, the electricity being channelled through both the metal frame of the chair she was sitting in and the water that covered her. Elle couldn't help but scream as the power she had once so effectively wielded against others tore through her like fire, torturing and tormenting every nerve in her body…
"Stings like a bitch, doesn't it?" Noah said, giving no indication that he felt any guilt about doing this to her despite their old partnership after she finally managed to turn the electricity off, leaving her gasping for air and relief from the pain as she looked dazedly up at him. "I know all about your ability, Elle."
"You don't know anything about me-" Elle retorted, the memory of what he'd forced her to turn Gabriel into giving her the strength to glare back at him despite the pain she was now in.
"I was there when your father first brought you in," Noah countered, moving away from the counter to stand more directly in front of her. "You were a normal girl; unicorns and rainbows…"
Elle had to give the man credit; if it wasn't for the fact that she was still his prisoner, Bennett could have almost sounded sorry about what he was talking about.
"And then they started the testing," he continued. "The human brain isn't built to take that much electricity. You poor girl…"
"My father would never let that happen," Elle countered; she might have been shaken from the electricity, but she knew her father.
"Your father was leading the charge," Noah stated, crouching down slightly to look her more directly in the eyes.
"I don't remember any of that," Elle retorted; she just wished that he'd get out of her face and do whatever he was going to do…
"No memories, huh?" Noah replied. "Kind of like someone… took them away?"
Elle froze.
The Haitian…
She'd seen what he was capable of; he'd practically been the Company bogeyman, everyone whispering amongst each not to cross the Company if you wanted to wake up remembering everything about your past the next morning…
Could her father really have… done that…?
"Why do you think I never let the company anywhere near Claire?" Noah continued, his voice lowering and his gaze remaining on Elle as he watched walls crumble, revealing the ugly truth that had been concealed even from her memory; her father saw her as nothing more than a tool. "I didn't want her to become you."
He stepped back and stood up, his arms folded as he continued to look directly at her. "Now I need your help to find her."
"And why… should I… help you?" Elle asked, glaring pointedly up at him; evidently, even after news that basically stated that everything she knew about her past was wrong, she was still trying to be the 'Company girl'.
"Because if you don't…" Noah replied, walking back over towards the counter where he'd been standing originally, subsequently picking up a water-balloon in his right hand as he turned back to face Elle. "Well, I think we both know what'll happen."
Elle instinctively winced, which was all Noah needed to know that he'd reached her.
She might not be a perfect ally, but she didn't want to get shocked again; that was all he needed right now.
"What do you want?" she asked, her voice low but resigned to her fate.
"Basics first," Noah replied. "For starters, why does your father want Claire's blood?"
Looking up as she sat in the interrogation room of the police station, Angela wondered ideally what Detective Parkman had to say to her this time around; she'd already given him as much information as she felt comfortable providing him regarding the situation, but he'd always been a very tenacious individual…
Then Matt Parkman walked into the room, nodding briefly at the cop standing behind her before the other man walked out, leaving the two of them alone in the room.
"I've told you everything-" Angela began.
"You've answered my questions," Parkman said, nodding briefly back at her in response. "There's someone else who wants to talk to you…"
With that sentence, the air alongside Officer Parkman suddenly shimmered briefly, and then…
Angela couldn't stop herself from gasping.
"Peter…" she whispered, staring at her son in shock as he emerged from what she vaguely recognised from Company files as identical to reports describing Claude Raines' use of his invisibility.
"Hi, Mom," Peter said, his eyes narrowed as he glared at her. "What's Adam Monroe's connection to Claire?"
Angela's face paled.
No…
He couldn't know that-
"Know what?" Peter finished, continuing to glare at her as he leaned over to stare at her more directly. "What shouldn't I know about Adam and Claire?"
"Peter…" Angela whispered, looking shakily at him, wishing she could summon back her old strength. "There are things I can't tell you-"
"And there's things you need to tell me," Peter interjected, his expression retaining the same cold gaze as Parkman stood slightly behind them; Angela didn't even need to look to know that the cameras had been disabled for this particular 'talk', most likely by one of Peter's seemingly increasingly-limitless abilities. "There's a connection between them, and it's not because of their powers; what is it?"
For a moment, Angela thought about trying to lie, but instantly pushed that thought aside; Peter or Parkman would almost certainly sense the reality- or falsehood, in this case- of what she told them no matter how convincing she tried to make it.
This was it.
The moment she'd been praying would never happen… the moment that would see her son reach a point where not even she could know what he would do… had finally happened.
Taking a deep breath, she looked Peter directly in the eyes, and spoke the words that would change him for the rest of his life.
"Adam Monroe is Claire's biological father."
