Chapter 7: Three years gone

We don't know what kind of a future lies ahead of us. Luckily, we can say. But if we could see, what the future holds, what are the darkest or brightest worlds are, the question is: what would you do otherwise. Would we know what to do to and what results we'll have? And, if needed, would we have the courage to step in front of the firestorm?

Hiro woke up in a different place. He was lying on a darkened floor.

"Freeze!" shouted a woman above him. He looked up and saw her. There wasn't anything extraordinary in her, except her hair was cut almost in her head so Hiro couldn't even decide what color did it have. And, more importantly, she was holding a huge machine gun in front of Hiro's face.

He tried to concentrate but somehow he couldn't teleport out of this situation.

"Your abilities won't work." she said. "We know that. We saw it. Now get your fat ass up and move. We don't have much time. We can't know if some of them are coming to you. Go!"

Hiro didn't have much choice. He simply couldn't imagine a situation like this. He got used to his ability so much, and it was hard to act like this. Simply doing nothing extraordinary, nothing super to get out from the throat of death. He felt small and lost. He didn't know how did he get here. And, in fact, he didn't know where he was. He just put his hands up and started walking like an ordinary man. Like an ordinary prisoner.

"Where are we? And who are you?" asked he while he had to move very carefully, not to fall down from the stairs that were burnt.

"A few years ago, this town had the name Odessa."

"Odessa, Texas?"

"Yeah, precisely."

"Stop. I have to stop a conference. There is something terrible going on."

"Something terrible is going on? What a good guess. And, in fact, there hasn't been a conference for many years."

Hiro tried to turn his arm, to see his watch, but he felt the gun on his back.

"Move. I'll bring you to our leader. She's not far away and she'll explain everything.

But something didn't want to leave Hiro rest and be quiet. How did she know that he had abilities. He was so curious, that he asked this from the woman.

"She told me you'll try to use your ability, but it won't work."

"Who is she?" Hiro asked.

"Soon you'll see."

After this conversation was the first time, when he really looked up and saw the environment around them. It was catastrophic. Most of the houses were burnt down, or at least heavily burnt, or demolished. The gardens and the fences of the houses were also burned down mostly, and there were several deep cracks in the asphalt of the road. He didn't see a bicycle, a newspaper, or even a human being or any sign of life around.

Suddenly, they heard a car coming and the girl started moving much faster. He grabbed Hiro's mouth so he couldn't speak and pulled him behind a ruined house. He tried to cry out, but she was simply stronger. After they had hidden from the car, she whispered to him.

"Don't say a word, and I'll let you speak and give you a gun. Do you understand this?"

Hiro nodded and her hand moved away from his mouth. She picked a gun from her belt, gave it to him and turned away, looking and listening to the street.

"Are they gone?" whispered Hiro.

"I hope so." she answered. "I can't here the car but we know the Seeker's here somewhere."

"The Seeker?"

"One of them. He senses human life." She waited for about a minute without a word then turned back to Hiro. She had to realize that Hiro's gun was just a few inches away from her face.

"What are you doing?" she asked without any sign of fear.

"Tell me what happened. And why do you treat me like a prisoner?"

She didn't say anything so Hiro shook the gun and moved closer to her.

"Tell me." he said.

"You have to half-cock it first." she said and she hit Hiro with the butt of her machine gun so he fell on the ground unconscious.

"You could kill him and take his power. It would be much easier." Hiro woke up on a bed, and the girl who took and hit him, was talking in a language he didn't understand. He touched his face and he realized there was a big bruise on his right cheek.

"No, it would make things just more complicated." answered another woman. "Please, bring him here."

She looked into his eyes and realized that he was awake. She was Asian, just like Hiro, was quite small, had green eyes and long, dark hair. And, she had an artificial arm.

"Soon you'll know everything you need." she whispered.

A man stepped in the room. He was much taller than the woman or Hiro, and wore horn-rimmed glasses.

"Hiro Nakamura." whispered Noah Bennet. Hiro was stunned that he heard his own name.

"We can't know. We have to check him." said the woman. "That's why Marie called you here. He can be one of their shape shifters."

"What was hung on the wall of Kaito's office?"

Hiro was hardly frozen. He had just arrived here, in Odessa, and someone unknown asks him questions like this. Despite this, he decided to tell the truth.

"A painting. No, two of them. One of my mother and one of the frozen waterfall."

"He tells the truth. For some reason, his favorite was the waterfall. It must be him." said Noah.

"Then, he should be our savior." added the woman. "It might sound familiar, but you have to save the world."

Hiro stared from one face to another. They looked like they know exactly what he's capable of and what he'll have to do. And this filled him with fear.

"You're Hiro Nakamura and you can travel in time." the woman began. "My name is Dr. Wang Kwanzhe. I was born in China. But that doesn't really matter."

"What happened? What's this place?" he asked.

"For the second question, I have a clear answer. Three years ago, this place was the headquarters of the police in Odessa." She sighed. "For the first, I don't know what do you know and what you don't. Have you heard about the IV-s?"

"IV-s? What?"

"Then we can be in time. When did you started your time travel?"

"March 26."

"2007, I guess."

Hiro nodded.

"Look at your watch." He did so and had to realize that it wasn't working. It wasn't ticking.

"Please don't ask me about the exact date because we don't know it. We just guess that it's April 3, 2010."

"How?"

"It's a long story and has a few milestones. In May 2007, a virus was released..." she began.

"A virus? A virus that can kill everybody?" his voice was desperate. He fought so hard to stop Adam and the virus and he thought he failed.

"No. Not a virus like that. A computer virus."

"Computer virus?" he asked. He couldn't believe it. How could a computer virus cause such destruction?

"Yes, a computer virus. It was called Wyvern07 and we don't know many about it. We don't know where or how was it released but it attacked more than 99 percent of the world's computers in hours. Any computer connected to a network. It crushed everything, destructed the global information flow as well as the hardwares. In only a few hours, the world turned from systematic order to the deepest chaos. At this time, the first generation of the IV-s were in the shadows."

"Pardon, what is an IV?" Hiro asked.

"Oh, I forgot to tell you. An IV is a human with abilities. At least, they call themselves IV-s. Meaning invincible."

"So I am..."

"Wait for the other parts, please. The IV-s were looking for allies. Criminals, villains like them, or simply people who wanted power. To rule. To change the world forever. Are you familiar with the Company?"

He nodded again.

"In the same month, a pack of these people attacked the Company Headquarters. As far as we know, all of the people in Hartsdale were killed. But they didn't expose themselves at that time either. Using the Company's data, they tracked down everyone known with manifested abilities. They tried to unite everyone with abilities. To share their goal, to rule over the world. Some of them decided to join the IV-s. The others were killed."

"How? How can, how could they kill people with powers so easily?"

"Their leader was a man named Nicolai. Nicolai Starnov. He has the ability to block others' abilities. With the power of this surprise, they managed to hunt down everyone." she gulped as she was saying this. "Including you."

"Me??" asked Hiro.

"Yes. I can just guess, but I think they didn't even tried you. You had strong contacts with some disps: your sister, and your friend, Ando Masahashi."

"Disps?" he asked. Another word he didn't understand.

"Dispensables. That's how they call people without abilities. Like Marie, like Noah, or like Ando. And this name shows how they treat them."

Hiro thought about the worst.

"So, they began to hunt down people with abilities. And maybe, here comes the most important milestone. They captured someone who can induce radioactivity."

"Like a nuclear bomb?" Hiro asked. He thought about Peter Petrelli.

"Yes, exactly. They imprisoned this person, unconsciously and forced him or her to induce radioactivity, but not like an atomic bomb. They are forcing a constant EMI out of him or her, so much that they can cover up the entire world with electromagnetic fog."

"And what does that mean?" Hiro asked. He wasn't an expert in Physics when he learned these things.

"Remember your watch. It stopped at the moment you arrived in this time. Nothing works that needs electronic voltage. Absolutely nothing. We simply can't communicate. Except voice and smoke signs. Like the stone age, exactly."

"Then, what can you do?"

"The best we can. We keep fighting. Sometimes we manage to steal a car but cars must return to the headquarters and report so sooner or later we get caught."

"And why are you the leader?" Hiro asked because he didn't have the smallest idea about this. Wang was a woman, a seemingly weak woman and although she seemed to be clever, he couldn't imagine her as a leader in war times, like these looked like.

"I guess we didn't mention this." said Marie behind the back of Hiro. She almost scared the soul out of him, so he needed time to realize that she was carrying a dish full of water, like some soup.

He expected Wang to wash her face, for example, in the water, but she didn't do that. Instead, she just looked into the water. Hiro tried to lean over it, too, but Marie stopped him. So he looked on the woman, and as she looked up, her eyes were like a blind man's eyes. In fact, he only saw eyes like these once: when he saw Isaac Mendez painting. He was sitting there, excited, what will she say when she wakes up. And he was thinking about new questions. For example, why wasn't she painting? And additionally, the most important one: if she had seen the future, why didn't she do anything to avoid it.

After a few moments, she woke up.

"Marie!" she said. "Call Noah, immediately. We got to move."

"What did you see?" asked Marie.

"They're here. They brought the Seeker. They can find us in any minute."

She moved as fast as she can, leaving Hiro with her.

"We got to move. I saw this room, you, this dish and them coming after us. You got to teleport out of here, back to your time."

Hiro tried immediately but he couldn't.

"I can't." he said.

"Then you'll come with us. And, keep trying! You're our only hope."

Noah and Marie burst into room with such power that Hiro thought they'll pick up him and Wang, but naturally the latter didn't happen.

"Get out!" shouted Noah and he was holding a gun, pointing to their escape direction. Marie led the way as the four of them was running through a corridor, then a tunnel, under the houses and the streets, until they reached another door, made of metal. After opening that, they ended up in a room that looked like a cellar. They had to stop because the tempo was a bit fast for Hiro and Wang and they had to breathe for a few seconds. For the two other, these seconds were like years.

Marie ran forward, climbed up on a small ladder and opened another door. The next moment she was grabbed, someone pulled her off, while she could just scream. Noah tried a shot but the metal door fell back as Marie was pulled out.

"Go back. Don't deal with me." said Noah although he didn't look back. He was constantly aiming for the door, looking to shoot anyone or anything coming down.

"I'm not leaving. Not now." said Wang. She climbed up the ladder and (surprisingly to Hiro) phased her bust up, so she could face their enemies. There was a sound of a terrible blast, pieces of the floor fell down on Noah and Hiro and smoke came down as well, too.

"Wang!" cried Noah for the woman.

"I'm here." she answered.

It took about a minute to find each other in the thick gas.

"Who's here?" asked Noah.

"The Seeker. And some new guy. I haven't seen him before. He shot some fluid at me, probably acid. When I tried to burn him, this happened."

"Marie?"

"I didn't get the best sight but I think we lost her."

Noah was effing and blinding silently.

"The smoke will cover us up." said Wang. "Maybe we can get out and escape again."

"I'll go..." Noah started to say something but floor under them started to crack, beginning from the door. Noah shot the door a few times, but nothing changed, until, during just a second, the earth and the walls moved at the same time, letting the door simply fall on the ground.

Hiro could just see their chaser for a moment. He had curly dark hair and a mustache and his skin was creole. And he was holding a cigarette lighter in his hand. Time seemed to slow down (Hiro didn't know if his ability caused this), Hiro saw that Noah tries to shoot again. The man clicked the lighter, and in a second flames flew out of it, covering up near the whole room.

Hiro concentrated as the light of the flames seemed to get closer and closer to him.

Hiro Nakamura simply fell on the ground. He knew he wasn't in the same time, he wasn't in the future. This time, the floor was covered with a carpet. He sat up and looked around. The painting of the frozen waterfall has already been gone, but the picture of Ishi Nakamura in its usual place.

He knew where he was: in the office of his family. This once belonged to his father, and now belongs to his sister.

He looked around again. He didn't see any sign of Kimiko. He looked at the calendar on the table: it showed the last week of March in 2007. He hoped he came here in time.

Sometimes, the role of luck or whatever you call it, is critical. Sometimes you face a firestorm, sometimes you got burnt in it, sometimes you burn in it and parish. Your soul might be free, but your life would be gone. So what would you choose if you knew the place where the firestorm starts only with a small, maybe even hidden and unnoticed flame?