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
AN: The idea for the power of my original character here comes from the pages of "Spider-Man/Black Cat: The Evil That Men Do", just in case anyone's interested
A Leap to Safety
God… Adam Monroe groaned as he drove along the road, wishing he'd had more time to get the blood off his hands; he was really going to leave stains on the wheel no matter how hard he tried to clean them off…
It would have all been easier if Peter had come with him, of course- with that guy's mind-reading he could have found the virus's location far more quickly; as it was he'd had to waste a not-inconsiderable amount of time torturing Pratt until she'd given away just enough to let him know what he was after-, but he hadn't survived this long without anyone knowing his age by being incapable of operating solo; thanks to his long experience with people, he knew enough to work out what particular reactions meant what when asking questions.
It hadn't been easy, but once he had his hands on that virus it would definitely be worth it; all he needed to do now was get there before anyone else twigged… which, given Peter's undoubtedly-poor reputation among the Company after breaking out like that, would definitely take quite a while even if he wasn't a mess after remembering what he might have done with that cute little cheerleader of his…
Adam couldn't help but smile at the thought.
His daughter had won the heart of the man who was potentially the most powerful person on the planet…
If Peter hadn't been a complete idiot about how to use his powers- all that power and he still tried to use it to save an already ridiculously over-populated planet?-, he could have almost been proud of her; as it was, he wished she could have found someone who realised how the world really worked…
"What?" Peter yelled, vaguely aware of Matt repeating him as he slammed his hands on the interview table, leaning over to glare at Angela. "What do you mean, Adam's Claire's father?"
"I mean what I say; he is her biological father," Angela repeated, looking solemnly at the men before her. "I acknowledge that it is a shock-"
"Hold on, Bob told us that Adam's been locked up for the last thirty years; how can he be Claire's father?" Matt cut in, looking in frustration at Angela. "What, did you allow him… conjugal visits or something?"
"And risk him winning sympathy for his cause by convincing any of the women… involved with him… that his methods were right?" Angela countered, shaking her head as she looked back at the detective. "We were arrogant, but we weren't foolish; at least half of us were already suspicious about how loyal the other half were to Adam, and the last thing we wanted was any reason to give us more people to be suspicious of."
"OK…" Peter said, nodding thoughtfully as he looked at his mother- the reasoning did make sense, even if he thought it a perfect example of how the Company should have destroyed itself years ago; how could something like that work when half the people involved didn't trust the other half?-, before he turned back to the central matter. "So… if you didn't allow Adam… guests… how can Claire be his daughter?"
"We hardly wanted to lose access to such a unique power as Adam's; his ability to survive essentially everything thrown at him was truly remarkable," Angela clarified, her expression still refusing to give away her feelings about the experiment that she'd once participated in. "His regenerative abilities alone had so much potential, but when considering some of the implications of what that could result in long-term- would he become resistant to certain types of death if they occurred more regularly, for example-, we knew that we had to find out more about his power…"
"And, since powers are normally passed from father to son- like I inherited my dad's ability-, you figured that the best way to get another example of Adam's power was to 'create' his kid…" Matt continued, looking uncertainly at Angela, clearly wanting to make sure that he understood what she was saying before he continued.
"You're sure about this?" Elle asked as she looked over pointedly at Noah, her new/old 'partner' sitting nonchalantly a few feet away from her, the water-bottle he'd carried on board with him casually positioned to point at her as they flew towards the old Primatech storage facility. "It does seem a bit of a stretch…"
"Peter broke out of the cells with Adam Monroe, Claire stole my files on Adam Monroe- along with others, of course, but Adam's the most likely target- and Adam Monroe's interested in unleashing this virus you told me about; seems like a pretty clear line of progression for me," Noah said simply (Elle really wished she could just punch the bastard, but he'd deliberately bought three seats and stuck her at the window seat just so that she'd take that much longer to hit him physically, and the second she started generating electricity he'd soak her). "I've read Adam's file; if he's out, he'll be after that virus."
"And the reason why your little Claire would be going there…?" Elle asked scathingly.
Noah shrugged.
"That's… complicated," he said simply (Which Elle 'translated' as meaning he had either no clear reason why that should be the case or he had a few ideas he didn't want to share with her; either way she'd get nothing more out of him in that regard). "Let's just say she… has her reasons."
Even as she settled back down in her seat, glaring in frustration at the back of the chair in front of her- the last thing Elle wanted right now was to start chatting with the man who'd turned Gabriel into a monster-, Elle couldn't help but wonder what the bastard meant by that last comment…
"Naturally we contemplated using him as a donor to impregnate one of us, but there were problems with that theory from the beginning," Angela explained, her tone almost disturbing casual as she spoke about creating a child like it was nothing more than an experiment; Peter and Matt couldn't help but shudder slightly at the implications. "Of the founding members left active at that time, your father and I were the only ones married, and neither of us felt certain we could handle another child, particularly not at my age. The other remaining female members were another possibility, of course, but all of them were uncertain about their chances of successfully carrying a baby to full-term at this age…"
"But… if you wanted a kid with Adam's ability… wouldn't it-?" Matt began uncertainly.
"Powers on that scale require a certain kind of catalyst- just as you both only truly came into your abilities after that eclipse some months back; none of us were entirely certain how it worked but the timing was too accurate for it to be a coincidence-, and such a catalyst never occurs in the womb; it can only happen when an individual is independent," Angela clarified, looking pointedly at Matt. "Your abilities all achieved your full potential in the recent eclipse- your fathers were intending to devise some other means of triggering them before… events… happened that caused them to-"
"Stick to the facts; how can Adam be Claire's father?" Peter practically growled, glaring at his mother for trying to draw the conversation away from the central issue they were facing at present; he could worry about whatever agenda his father might have had some other time. "From what Nathan told me after I learned who she was, Claire's mother was this… 'Meredith Gordon' woman, and Nathan's sure he slept with her at the time when-"
"He did," Angela interjected, her expression more solemn than it had ever been before as she looked at her son. "It just… wasn't his sperm that fertilised Meredith's egg."
Peter blinked.
There was no way he'd heard that right…
How the hell…?
"Nathan… had Adam's sperm?" Matt said, evidently equally unable to believe what he was hearing. "Why?"
"If we had used completely artificial insemination to create the child we ran the risk that the mother might some day express an interesting her child knowing its father; we had to ensure that there was no possibility for Adam to ever come in contact with the outside world," Angela explained. "We had yet to discover the Haitian at this time, and even if we had used him he could only prevent the mother from remembering the circumstances of the conception; he wouldn't be able to give her false recollections of a father. The only possibility was to set up a situation where we could create the impression that someone else was the father of Adam's child, and impregnate the mother in such a way that she would never know there was any possibility of someone else being involved."
"So… you're saying that you… gave Nathan Adam's sperm?" Peter said, suddenly grateful that nursing focused more on general care of a patient rather than in-depth diagnosis; the last thing he wanted was background knowledge to make the already-disturbing mental picture he'd just developed any more detailed…
"But how-?" Matt began.
"Dennis Grant," Angela replied simply.
"Who?" the detective asked after a brief pause, after determining that Peter didn't recognise the name either.
"A low-level teleporter," Angela elaborated. "His power didn't allow him to teleport himself- indeed, he couldn't actually teleport large objects or people- but he was capable of teleporting small amounts of liquid from one location to the other. It didn't seem like much at first, but he was able to work out ways of using it over time; he could teleport water molecules from the air around him in large enough amounts to give himself mouthfuls of water if he was thirsty, he could send poison into someone's system without them ever knowing he'd done it… and, of course, he could teleport the sperm samples we'd acquired from Adam into a 'suitable environment' for them to serve our purpose."
Peter and Matt simply stared in silence at that statement for a few moments, each trying to process what they'd just heard, before Peter finally broke the silence once again.
"You… had this guy… teleport Adam's sperm into Nathan?" he said, staring incredulously at her. "But-"
"We had to time it right, of course; if the sperm entered Nathan's system too early or too late it might not reach the egg in time, or be 'outraced' by Nathan's own sperm," Angela said (Peter was strongly starting to wish that he could just feel comfortable with letting go of his feelings and punching his mother for her attitude; how could she sound so clinical when she was talking about creating a life?). "But, in the end, when we took a blood test from Claire after her birth, it confirmed that we'd achieved our goal; she was Adam Monroe's daughter."
Sitting back slightly in her chair, she shrugged slightly as she looked at them. "After that… well, all we could do was wait until her abilities activated to see whether we'd accomplished everything we'd set out to do."
"And you never… ever… thought it might be worth mentioning before now… that she is not Nathan's daughter?" Peter said, his voice low as he tried to resist the temptation to punch something; now was not the time to vent his rage at his mother for keeping this particular revelation secret.
"I always considered her a kind of grandchild after the part I played in her birth; it seemed the best course of action at the time," Angela clarified, her eyes narrowing slightly as she looked at Peter. "It struck me as the best means of being sure to keep an eye on our subject; establish myself as a relative."
Peter couldn't help but shudder slightly at the casual way in which his mother had said that.
God… what made people become this cold…?
He pushed that thought aside; thinking about how people could reach this stage wasn't going to help him stop Adam from unleashing that virus.
"Where is it?" he asked, looking pointedly at his mother.
"What?" Angela replied.
"The virus that Adam's after; the one capable of destroying almost the entire planet in just over a year if it gets out," Peter elaborated briefly, his gaze making it clear to his mother and his ally- it was too early to call Matt a friend- that he wouldn't take a rejection for an answer; he'd picked up what he'd come here to learn for himself, now he had the bigger picture to take into account. "Where. Is. It?"
"Odessa, Texas; Primatech," Angela answered after a moment's silence. "The virus you're looking for… it's Strain 138; it's kept in a vault underneath the main facility-"
"Not for much longer," Peter replied, turning to look resolutely over at Matt; the situation regarding the revelations about Claire would have to wait until later, and the address she'd just given him fit in with the direction that Claire and Adam had been travelling in when he'd… 'sensed' them. "Come on, we have to get going; we've not got long until everyone gets to the warehouse, and right now I'd feel a lot more comfortable breaking into Company property with more than just me."
Matt could only nod as Peter turned invisible and the two of them left the interrogation room, already wondering how long it would take them to get to the warehouse in this kind of time frame; given Peter's reluctance to try and teleport others until he was certain he'd remembered everything in case he was distracted at a crucial moment, flight was probably their best bet…
AN 2: I acknowledge that the above explanation for Peter not just teleporting there is a little flimsy, but I needed a reason for them to get to the warehouse at the last minute, and this seemed like the best option; at the moment Peter's still 'sorting out' his memories after his recent memory-loss, so he'd rather not risk teleporting others in case something happens that causes him to lose focus (Plus, I'm trying to establish a few limits to stop things being too easy…)
In any case, next chapter we're into the final stretch; Peter VS Adam, as the most powerful man alive clashes with the OLDEST man alive
