: : :
Cris and Doug
Downtown Los Angeles, California
Doug and Cris stood side by side on the outdoor basketball court, watching the four agents exit their car. Two of them, a tall blonde guy and a tall brunette woman hid behind the doors and pulled out their guns like police officers. The other two, a tall, dark-haired man and a petite blonde woman, boldly walked toward them.
Doug, being closer to the blonde, knelt down and pressed his hands into the concrete. The surface began to ripple. Elle suddenly lost her footing and began to sink into liquefied concrete. She didn’t let this stop her from sending a burst of lightning to knock over her attacker. He recovered quickly, now ready for a fair fight.
Cris stared down the dark-haired man. He had the most annoying grin on his face. Gabriel raised his hand and Cris was airborne. He jerked his arms to the right and Cris went flying into a chain link fence. Gabriel wasn’t expecting him to burst right through as the links shattered like ice crystals.
Behind their partners, Ryan and Bess started firing. The bullet did make holes in their clothing, but were nonetheless ineffective against their skin. Bess’s bullets popped like paintballs against Doug and Ryan’s shattered like glass against Cris.
The angered Doug melted more of the concrete and the two agents found themselves sinking as well. Ryan used his door to climb onto the roof. Bess began the same process, with Ryan dragging her onto the roof with him.
“Thank you,” she said curtly. She raised her gun again and shot Melty in the eye. The bullet melted again, but liquid lead distracted him long enough for Elle, currently knee deep in liquid concrete to stun him with another surge.
Meanwhile, Gabriel was using his telekinesis to launch Kris into any surface he could find: the ground, a nearby building, the basketball hoops. None proved durable enough to cause any sort of damage. Inspired, Ryan leapt off the car and dashed over to his partner, whispering something in his ear that made him smile.
Kris soon found himself jetting straight up into the air.
“Let’s see what happens when he tries to crystallize air.” Gabriel ceased using his arms to hold Kris up and lifted his wife out of the puddle.
He didn’t get very far when a number of thick icicles rained down upon him, one impaling his head.
Ryan and Bess ran to the car. Ryan surveyed the predicament, but Elle was already racing over to her husband, covering her head. She began yanking blood-covered icicles from his head. Gabriel began to heal immediately, but not before Elle found herself sinking into the cement again.
“Don’t you give up?!” she screamed at newly awakened Doug. She shot several bolts of lightning, making Doug dance.
“Missed!” he taunted.
Elle fired again, shocking him in the ankle and causing him to fall onto the soft concrete. Halfway through rolling himself out, he found the surfact concrete re-hardened. And ice cold. Gabriel stood by with a hand hovering above the puddle and a grin on his face. His smile fell when Elle stuck both hands into the concrete.
Noticing the telltale furrow of her brow, he exclaimed, “Elle, don’t!”
But blue sparks lit up the pond and both parties were rendered unconscious.
A crinkling noise in the background alerted the agents to the return of Kris. There was now a deep hole in the middle of the court. Cris climbed out, unharmed, brushing off the bits of concrete stuck to his clothes.
Seeing Gabriel too distracted by his wife, Ryan raced toward the criminal. He fired a few shots into his shoulder, which of course shattered. Once close enough, he punched the man in the jaw, causing Ryan’s knuckles and several layers of skin to shatter on impact. He screamed out, stumbling back. Bess caught him and laid him down gently. “Idiot,” she muttered under her breath. Cris looked menacing at her, but she briskly stomped on the side of his knee, which made a painful breaking sound. “See, shattering’s no fun when it’s you.
“Bess, I’d move,” Gabriel’s voice came. His hand was aglow with radiation.
Bess pulled her gun on him. “The last thing we need is another Costa Verde. California is going to start looking like a pot-marked teenager.”
“Fun science fact,” Gabriel stated, oblivious to her comments, “plasma isn’t very easily crystallized.” He punched Cris hard across the face. It was a glancing blow, knocking him out but causing only bright red first-degree burns on his face.
Gabriel’s fist faded. He walked back over to his wife. Using his abilities, he remelted the concrete and floated her out. Holding her in his arms, he patted her face until her cheek sent a shock back. She opened her eyes, smiling. “We make a good team.”
Bess cleared her throat and Ryan tried not to look slighted.
“It was a very inclusive ‘we.’ Geez.” She sighed, looking up at her husband’s face. Her eyes then turned downward to her own body. “Bastard got goo-ified cement all over my new pants. He’s going to pay for that.”
Her teammates just nodded in agreement.
: : :
Peter and Molly
Mohinder’s Lab
Brooklyn, New York
“Can you find him?” Peter remarked to Molly, pointing to the computer screen.
“Get me a map. A world map,” Molly replied.
Mohinder noted, “There’s a world atlas…” He ran to the bookshelves, his spiny hand brushing against the spines. He pulled out the needed book.
Molly flipped through pages and stopped on one. She pointed. “He’s here.”
Peter took a quick look over her shoulder. “Okay. Wish me luck.” And he was gone.
“Luck,” Molly offered. After a few moments of awkward silence, she added, “So, it’s a bit of a family reunion.”
Mohinder, trying to loose as un-menacing as possible in his current state, stated, “I heard you got married, Matt. Congrats. And a baby. Badhae.”
Again, there was a lull in conversation.
“I’m fourteen now,” Molly commented to Mohinder.
“Wow,” Mohinder said, “they grow up so fast.”
Matt just nodded.
Another silence filled the room. Matt studied Mohinder and noted, “Dude, you really screwed it up the formula, didn’t you?”
Examining his hand, he agreed self-deprecatingly, “Quite.”
: : :
Hiro and Peter
Kirishitan Cathedral
Ikitsuki, Japan
Peter Petrelli teleported inside of the antechamber of an empty church. The first thing he noticed was that the walls were covered in diagrams hand-drawn onto newspaper and miles of colored string attached to the wall.
“This must be the place,” Peter commented to himself.
He suddenly found himself face to face with the tip of Hiro’s blade.
After a moment of recognition from both parties, Peter asked, “Could you slice my face along the other diagonal? It’d be nice to be symmetrical again.”
“Peter Petrelli,” Hiro greeted, his Japanese accent all but gone. “How did you find me?”
“Molly.”
Hiro appeared pensive for a moment. “Wait here.” He disappeared and reappeared almost instantly, holding a manila folder. “Sorry for the wait. Molly Walker? She is a clairvoyant, able to find anyone just by thinking of them.” He showed Peter a printout of a Primatech profile. He held up a copy of an adoption record. “She was adopted by Mr. Matthew Parkman and a Mrs. Daphne Millbrook Parkman.” Hiro’s eyes widen as he commented, his Japanese inflection returning, “Nemesis!”
“Huh?”
“Sorry. Send Daphne my regards.”
Peter looked around, “You’ve been trying to map it all. All of it.”
“Yes. But it’s impossible. There’s too much information.”
“Hiro, I’ve been trying to avert the catastrophe, too. Is there any chance that we’ve been stepping on each other butterflies?”
“It’s been five years and I still haven’t figured out these powers.”
“Listen, I’ve come into contact with Suresh. He thinks that he can create an antidote, but he’ll need the formula. Can you steal it from Primatech?”
“Already ahead of you. I stole both parts from Pinehearst few months ago. I’ve hidden one half here and the other half back in the vault at Yamagato.”
“Is that safe?”
“The half here is tucked where only a teleporter can find it: inside of a dead area between the walls.” Hiro again disappeared and reappeared instantly, this time with the left half of the formula. “The other is inside a biometrically-locked safe. Only I can open it.”
“Get it.”
Hiro nodded. He grinned. “It’s always us, isn’t it, Peter Petrelli? Saving the world?”
“Yeah.”
Hiro handed him half the formula. “Here, take this to Prof. Suresh. I will be back with the other half soon.”
“I’ll meet you back here,” Peter answered.
“Why here?”
Peter followed a few strands of yarn, finding the web extended and expanded into the cavernous sanctuary. “It looks like I have some studying to do.”
“Maybe we’re lucky. Maybe we can beat it.”
“Let’s hope.”
“Alright, Peter Petrelli, wish me luck.” He held out a fist, which Peter gladly tapped. And then Hiro was gone.
: : :
Micah Sanders
MIT
Cambridge, Massachusetts
Micah began filling an empty fish tank with smoke. He dropped the dragonfly robot inside. It began to buzz around erratically. Micah cut of the smoke. The more the dragonfly flew, the clearer the smoke got until it finally sputtered out and crashed into the glass, leaving the air in the tank hazy but translucent.
Micah nodded appreciatively and held the dragonfly in his hand.
: : :
Paula Gramble
The Corinthian Hotel & Casino
Las Vegas, Nevada
1993
Angela was right, Paula Gramble thought, as she found the white-haired and -bearded man, in the kitchen. He was pulling out a tray of pot pies.
“I’m starting to worry about you, old man.”
Linderman gregariously approached the woman. “Paula, a pleasure to see you.” He held her face and kissed her on the cheek. “Please, you must come and smell this.”
She quickly sniffed the pot pie. “They smell like chicken pot pies, Daniel.”
Insulted, he replied, “You didn’t smell. Smell them again.”
Gramble inhaled deeply. “Turkey pot pie,” she admitted, “Very strong, so you must have used mostly dark meat.” Linderman smiled, watching her but not saying anything, his eyes challenging her to continue. She inhaled again. “Carrots, of course. Peas. Nice touch.” She sniffed a couple of more times. “Squash. Butternut. That’s risky.” She smiled; Daniel nodded appreciatively. “And that cheese you put on top? Too white. Certainly not romano. Swiss?”
“Asagio.”
“Excellent choice. Since it’s what you want to hear, it’s a culinary masterpiece.”
“I always knew you’d appreciate good food.”
“My mother was a very talented cook.”
Daniel studied his colleague suspiciously, “You won’t flatter me if you didn’t want something.”
Gramble’s tone turned business-like, “Daniel, I was hoping you could look at a picture.” She showed the man a photograph. It was the face of an attractive blond woman.
“I certainly hope you’re not accusing me of anything. I swear I don’t recognize her.”
“She’s one of your blackjack dealers. Her names Nicole Sanders and she’s 19.”
“All right.”
“She’s one of Susan’s girls.”
“Ah. Quite a coincidence, her happening to work for me.”
“Daniel, you know nothing’s a coincidence when I’m involved.” She held out another photograph.
“Yes, I know this one. He’s one of my construction workers.”
“D.L. Hawkins. A subcontractor. Strange that you recognize him and not the girl?”
“Well, I might have hired him and a few of his buddies to perform a… delicate task for me. He usually appears a bit reluctant.”
“He’s my nephew.”
“My apologies. I didn’t know.”
Paula shrugged apathetically. “It’s none of my concern. He’s Paulette’s boy. I’d expect nothing less.”
“Ah. The plot thickens.”
“I think that Nicole and D.L. would be good together.”
“And, what, you want to play matchmaker? How sweet.” Linderman poked his fork into his pot pie, biting into a too-hot bite. “You know, that’s the single dreadful thing about these things. They’re just too hot fresh out of the oven. Wouldn’t you like one?”
Gramble courteously took one, breaking open the crust and allowing the steam to escape. “Thank you. And, no, I want you to play matchmaker.”
“I’m a very busy man, Paula.”
“Angela is actually the one who brought this to my attention. She believes that their coupling would be essential to the New York Plan.”
Linderman froze. “Really? I can’t imagine why.”
“I got the impression from my conversations with her that it might involve a child.”
Daniel set down his pot pie and looked at the two photos. “It could work. They’re attractive people. Hopefully open-minded. Did Angela happen to mention how their hypothetical child would be useful?”
“No, but being married to Arthur for so long, it makes a woman hold on to her secrets.”
Linderman agreed gravely, “You’re quite right. Sometimes I worry about him. Well, thank you for bringing this to my attention. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I have some business to attend to.”
“Daniel,” Gramble called after him. He turned. “It’s good,” she said, indicating her pot pie. “But it needs pepper.”
Linderman smiled and gave her an appreciative hand gesture.
: : :
Angela Petrelli
Primatech Research Facility
Barstow, California
“Well, I must say this is a very impressive résumé. How did you come to hear about us, Miss… Hanson?”
Former FBI Special Agent Audrey Hanson sat back in her chair. “Back in 2006, I was put on the Sylar case. I was working with a man named Matt Parkman. He could read minds.”
“I know of Mr. Parkman. His father was an old friend.”
“Small world,” Audrey commented. She continued, “Well, at one point, we tried to raid a Primatech Paper Plant in Odessa, Texas, suspecting them of kidnapping people with special abilities. My boss at the time of course thought I was crazy. When those Evolution shot came out, I put the pieces together. Look, I know the government is trying to fight this outbreak of super-powered criminals. But no one wants to face the fact that the Presidency is in bed with Pinehearst, who makes those shots. Their solution for this outbreak is to inject more people. I figured that if anyone would be able to do real good, it’d be this place.”
Angela surveyed Hanson for the longest time. “You’re quite right, Miss Hanson. Understand, of course, that we do employ people with abilities. Most of them are Naturals. And we pair our agents up ‘one of us, one of them.’ This is not a war against specials, Miss Hanson. This is a war against things going out of control.”
“I’m on board with that.”
“Then, my dear, welcome to the Company.”
: : :
Director's Commentary: I have to give credit to Zach, Kristen, Sendhil, Milo, Greg, Christine, Adair, Olga, and Chris. None of us knew we’d be going at it for this long and since these people are the backbone of this series, they’ve increased their workload by about a third and getting paid minimally for it. Yet every day, they bring their A game.
It amazing to have Masi Oka again. He’s only able to squeeze in a few episodes, and we’re making the most of his time.
Also, I'm ecstatic that we were able to bring back Clea DuVall and Malcolm McDowell in the same episode. It was nothing short of a miracle that they're schedules opened up at the same time.
Written and Directed by Christopher VanDrey
Zachary Quinto … Gabriel Gray
Kristen Bell … Elle Gray
Sendhil Ramamurthy … Mohinder Suresh
Milo Ventimiglia … Peter Petrelli
Greg Grunberg … Matt Parkman
Christine Rose … Angela Petrelli
Adair Tishler … Molly Walker
Noah Gray-Cabey … Micah Sanders
Masi Oka … Hiro Nakamura
Olga Sosnovska … Bess Detskij
Chris Carmack … Ryan Covington
Clea Duvall … Audrey Hanson
Malcolm McDowell … Daniel Linderman
Gina Ravera … Paula Gramble
Jesse Boyd … Doug
Jonathan Chase … Cris
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