how to stop an exploding man.

[regenerated]

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.

Comments

[regenerated]

"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.

[arrowette]

"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?"

[regenerated]

"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."

[arrowette]

"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.

[regenerated]

"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."

[arrowette]

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?"

[regenerated]

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."

[arrowette]

"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."

[regenerated]

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.