regenerated | how to stop an exploding man.

Entry tags:

home plot 2011: session 1

how to stop an exploding man.

The papers read November 7th, 2006. The much anticipated New York congressional elections were underway as people all around the city were filing in lines, some staring with a bit of curiosity or trepidation at the new booths provided by one Daniel Linderman, a big name throughout the whole of New York, but one who came with his share of shadiness as well. Not every household trusted him, the most wary sticking in their apartments, offices, and classrooms, absentee ballots clutched in their hands, but the turnout was decent on the whole, the only event which seemed to set that day apart from most others in that gray city, skyscrapers stretching all the way up into the clouds above.

But, unknown to the general populace, there were a group of individuals scattered around the whole of the city, some whose faces were plastered on posters at every turn, others making it onto national television, and still more trying their best to avoid any detection altogether. And those individuals were special, the pinnacle of human evolution, some believed. Destined to do something great.

A hospice nurse.

A taxi driver.

A watchmaker.

A girl next door.

An office worker.

A policeman.

A socialite.

A soon-to-be Congressman for the 14th District.

A manager at a paper factory.

A cheerleader.

Heroes and villains.

This was their story.

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She had to change things. Claire knew that much. Because no matter whether or not Peter and Nathan managed to survive the explosion in the sky, Claire didn't want to chance it. If there was a way to rid the world of Sylar for good, long before the rest of the world was put at risk, long before Matt Parkman's chest was riddled with bullets, Claire would take it. She was just in the process of orienting herself, trying to figure out where Sylar was, her eyes wide and roving. She knew that he had overheard them, and that was how he got to Ted Sprague. If she had yet to reunite with her dad, she had to find some way to take him to a secure location, as well as Peter and Ted.

All of those thoughts came to a screeching halt as Claire blinked, whirling around at the familiar voice.

"...Cissie?"

Now, that made no sense. She was pretty sure that Cissie had never come from her world, her reality. Claire's breath caught in her throat.

Claire knew her. That was good. Cissie let out a breath she hadn't realized she was holding and stopped just in front of her. "Are you okay? Did you just get here too? I was just minding my own business and then boom - here I was and I don't think we can blame the Slag for this. At least, I hope not."

Belatedly, she realized that Claire probably had no idea what she was talking about but it was a little late now. They were here, wherever this was, and they had to make the best of it. "Sorry. Long story."

"I'm fine," Claire breathed, not sure that she entirely believed it, but as far as anyone else was concerned, there were definitely no physical injuries on her body, no way that she could be hurt without something going directly into the back of her neck. If she said she was fine, most people would believe her (except for those who knew her the best, but they hadn't arrived yet, they weren't anywhere to be seen). "And yeah, I just got here too, it um. It looks a lot like where I was before I got to the island, so I feel like I've probably been thrown home, but that doesn't explain why you're here. Not that I mind you being here, but."

Her eyes rose up to trace along the skyscrapers.

"What's the Slag?"

"Great," Cissie breathed, takinga moment to look around properly now that the first wave of panic had gone. They were in Claire's world, apparently, which cleared some things up at least. No aliens were involved in bringing them here unless there was something Claire wasn't telling her.

"They're a group of aliens who like to go around challenging worlds to a game of baseball. If they win, they take over. I only got involved with them because when Young Justice needed an additional member on the team, they thought of me. Apparently I rank over Superman or Wonder Woman." She paused and shrugged wryly. "Yeah, I don't even know."

"Well, I'm not an alien," Claire muttered softly to herself, running a hand through her hair and shifting her weight impatiently from one foot to the other. Looking around the both of them, Claire reached out for Cissie's arm to maneuver the both of them closer to the side of a building, hoping that she could get her point across without saying anything too revealing that Sylar could further use against her. She was definitely suspecting that Sylar was already hovering around. "I don't think there are aliens here, really. At least, I've never aliens around here, and I've seen pretty weird stuff."

In a quieter tone, Claire leaned in, barely speaking above a whisper.

"Cissie, I think we're in a lot of danger. Serious, explosion might just take out most of the city level of danger."

Cissie looked around anxiously as if she could see the danger, forgetting for a moment that this wasn't her world and she was retired. The smart thing to do was to find the police or someone who could actually handle it. It's what a normal person would do.

"What? How? Who?" Cissie lowered her voice to match Claire's. "What can we do?"

She had never been normal to begin with and she wasn't going to start now.

She hated herself as soon as the words came to her. We're not doing anything, she wanted to say, because there is no 'we.' You're not equipped to deal with this. You shouldn't have to.

It'd hurt me just as much as it'd hurt you, if anything happened.

But it was too superior, too condescending, reminded Claire too much of her father, and her heart hurt at that thought, too, missing him so dearly and heart quick with the anticipation of getting to see him again soon. So instead, she tried to temper her voice, not treating the obviosu for what it was, because she'd never really made it clear what she could do. Was it at all unreasonable for others to think that they could do just as much as she?

"Hide," Claire instructed. "We need to find someplace to hide, where the enemy can't find us, and then we can discuss our next steps."

For a moment, Cissie wished Tim was here. He would know what the best thing to do was and how to get everything done. But he wasn't here, it was just her and Claire and they had to make do somehow.

She bit her lip, not liking the idea of running away but it made sense. She didn't know what was going on, but Claire did. It would be stupid to discuss things here and out in the open if the enemy was around. "Okay. We hide. And then you tell me what's going on because I'm not letting you do this alone. I've... I have some experience with this kind of thing."

The thought of running as soon as Cissie was somewhere safe had definitely crossed Claire's mind, even before the other blonde suggested it. That Cissie had preempted it meant that she would be on a closer watch, and would probably make sure that Claire never wandered far, but still. Claire wracked her brain for places they could go, wondering if a crowd was her best bet. Crafty though Sylar was, he hadn't yet made a move big enough to draw the attention of dozens.

"Let's head inside," Claire suggested quietly, an apologetic look already in her eyes, almost pained as the mere mention of experience had her reliving her own in her head, over and over. "I've had experience with this kind of thing too, you know."

Cissie nodded unhappily, stepping aside to let Claire lead the way. She had to admit that she would feel better with a bow in her hand, even if she wasn't sure that she could trust her emotions in the heat of battle if it came to that. The point was that it'd be a source of comfort that she could desperately use right now.

"I don't know if I should be glad or sad you know what it's like." She wondered if Claire was a metahuman or someone like her or Tim. It didn't matter either way - she had a feeling it would take more than the two of them to stop this thing.

"You can totally be both," Claire answered honestly, feeling it the only answer that did the situation much justice at all. That there really weren't black and whites to the situation, that emotions mixed until one could barely be distinguished from the other. How many times had she been proud of her actions lately, a certain sort of bravery only cropping up in her because she was invincible, and knew what to do with it? But how many times had that same power made her feel hopeless, no element of choice in it whatsoever? "You can be happy on a practical level, and you can empathize with me over how much it sucks."

Although the words were delivered a bit flippantly, Claire just sighed and rushes them toward the nearest building anyway, glancing over her shoulder as though she'd be able to find Sylar right then.

"Just when I think I'm out, they pull me back in," Cissie muttered, doing a bit of looking around herself. It wasn't as if she knew who or what to look for, but old habits die hard and all of that. She didn't see anything unusual at the moment, but that meant nothing.

"Okay," she said once they were relatively safe. "What's going on?"

"There's a guy," Claire whispered, keeping as close to Cissie as possible even given the crowd that surrounded them, her breathing shallow. "A really, really bad guy, like psychopath or sociopath, I don't... really know the difference between the two that well, but you get the idea. He's able to steal the abilities of anyone who has special powers, kills them to steal all of that, and he's going to try and blow up the city. I've seen this before, and it ends okay, my uncle really saves the day but."

She shifted her weight from foot to foot. "But I'm not sure that he survives all that and so I want to, I need to find him, just to make sure."

"Holy crap!" Cissie blurted out then covered her mouth as if that could somehow make up for her unfortunate outburst. This was pretty high up on the scale of Bad Things but there wasn't any reason to sit down and give up. He'd been beaten before, Claire had said, so there was no reason to think it couldn't be done again.

"So we need to find your uncle then," she said, much more quietly then before. "Is he here? And what about this bad guy? Do we know what all powers he has?"

It was beyond frightening to be thinking like this when it wasn't really her fight and she had nothing to throw at other than herself but the thought of hiding somewhere and doing nothing was even worse. In her own world it'd be different - there were plenty of superheros and/or teams who could jump on this and shut this guy down. She wasn't there, though, she was here and it was just her and Claire. It was wrong to sit this out.

"Shhhh," Claire hissed, expression immediately frantic as she looked over her shoulders, then back again when she realized that there was probably nothing that would call the attention of everyone to her faster than being a little blonde girl looking like she was in the middle of trouble. "I know that it's totally terrifying, but we need to be quiet. The only thing that we might have on him right now is the fact that I don't think he can read minds, otherwise... yeah, he can't read minds, and he doesn't have m... he's not invincible."

She closed her eyes, feeling a wave of hopelessness pass over her as she tried to steel her stomach, willing herself to manage through it. "I think he might have super-hearing, though. Or invincibility, something... god, something that let him totally overhear a conversation I had when he was nowhere I could see. So I think the best thing for me to do is to find my dad, because I know he's close, and he's so much better than I am at things like this. But I don't want to draw too much attention to a group without an adult here."

Cissie nodded slowly, wrapping her arms around herself as if that could protect her somehow. If her dad could help, then they definitely needed to find him. The more she heard about this guy, the more she was realizing that just the two of them wasn't going to be anywhere enough.

"What do you want me to do? Stay here and kind of keep an eye on the fort, so to speak? Or do you think that would be too obvious?"

It was a difficult decision to make, choosing between leaving Cissie there and taking her along, one which was potentially disastrous either way. Still, Claire felt that the only way that she could go out without reservations was if she didn't have too many people lingering by her side. It was more a weakness on her part than anyone else's, Claire was willing to admit that. But she just didn't want Cissie to know what she could do, what she was capable of, the things that made her a freak and a monstrosity.

"Yeah, keep an eye on the fort, and..." Claire grabbed Cissie's wrist and pulled her over to the nearest pay phone, grabbing for the pen which hung from the phone from a thin chain, and writing a number down in the other blonde's palm. "And call this number if anything happens, okay? It's my phone number. I've got my Sidekick on me."

"Stay here and call you if anything happens. Got it." Cissie took a deep breath and tried for an encouraging smile. Sure, this would be much easier if they had communicators and whatnot, but it was stupid to moan about the things they didn't have. It wasn't as if this was the first time she'd done reconnaissance before - just the first time as a civilian, more or less.

"Hey. Don't worry about me. You go and get your dad and when you guys get back, I'll be here."

Suddenly, she could feel tears pooling in her eyes, that influx of emotion that rose far above her head and left her drowning. Cissie was... she was something else. Brave, without a shade of a doubt, brave and sure of herself in a way that Claire definitely wasn't yet, and didn't think that she'd be in the years to come. She felt awful about leaving her friend behind, but at the same time, maybe this was the only way Claire could even hope of finding a similar amount of that steel that she envied so much. This was a decision that she had to make.

"Yeah," she nodded quickly, rushing forward to squeeze Cissie in a tight hug. "Yeah, I'll be right back. Stay safe, okay?"

And with a whirl of hair, she turned around with one last look over her shoulder, then ran toward where she knew her father would be.

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how to stop an exploding man.

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