2008-05-16: Caught

Starring:

Niki_icon.gif Arthur_icon.gif

Summary: Arthur Petrelli hunts down another traitor to Pinehearst in order to give her what's due.

Date It Happened: May 16th, 2008

Caught


Queens, New York

Supper time.

The car once lent to Niki by Pinehearst has barely pulled into the narrow driveway in Queens before its doors open. It took altogether too long to get home, and now she's in a hurry. Niki let Micah run on ahead to boot up the computer— or maybe he did that from the car. Can he do that? Maybe the computer is always on. Anyway, the mom of the boy genius twists from her unbuckled spot in the front seat, driver side door ajar, and rummages around in the back seat.

Purse, phone — still no word from Cass. Water bottle — she takes a second out of her hectic day to sit back and take a drink. For whatever reason, she grimaces at the bottle and shoves it between the seats. Anxious to see what Micah's doing, Niki's cowboy-style boots swing out of the car, crunching on the pave.

It's a fine, beautiful evening for New York City.

A fine evening to punish some bad employees.

Arthur Petrelli has already dealt with one of his traitorous employees, Cassandra Aldric, and it's time to deal with another. Things are finally getting back into order, and it won't be long before Pinehearst finalizes the plans that Arthur has set into motion. "Miss Sanders," the man says, appearing as if from nowhere. How does he do that? He casually leans on the back of the car as she exits the front seat, keeping his eyes on the driver's side door, waiting for her to emerge completely. "I was wondering if we could have a little chat."

Startled into standing up like a bolt and stepping backwards against the inside of the open car door, Niki is a deer in the headlights. She stops and stares. As much as she didn't want to run into this man at Pinehearst, that was one thing; the fact that he's here, at her home… that's another. She realizes, right away, that it's already too late to pretend.

He knows something.

But she tries. "Mister… Petrelli," she says, dampening her surprise. She casually grabs the edge of the car door, as if readying to simply step aside and shut it. "Is something wrong at Pinehearst?"

"Oh, yes," the man responds, pushing himself off of the car and advancing on Niki. He comes to within just a foot of her, his cold eyes boring into hers. "Something is very wrong at Pinehearst," Arthur begins, voice taking on a tone of disappointment, "as I'm sure you're aware, Miss Aldric has been sabotaging my efforts. Not only that, she's been in league with others within the company. One of those others happens to be you." He reaches out, placing a hand on the woman's shoulder. Cold eyes continue to stare into hers as he speaks, but this time a weight is carried behind his voice. "Let's go inside, shall we?"

Cass. No! …And no wonder he's here. The more Arthur speaks to her, the more hardened the woman's features become, the more defiant Her own blue eyes are far from matching his coldness, so they bore hotly, instead. At the hand on her shoulder, she doesn't flinch, but she does tense, and she holds more tightly onto the car door. "No," she says, her voice low and boldly disobedient. Micah is inside. "If you wanna talk to me, you can talk to me right here."

Lowering his chin, Arthur looks down at Niki, a small but noticeable fury in his eyes. "Have it your way," he says, tightening his grip on her shoulder to the point where it will hurt. "I have some information I need to get from you," he continues, eyes staring directly into Niki's. He begins to reach out with his mental perceptions, scanning the woman's brain for any more information he can find, much like he did with Miss Aldric. Even if he has to go through them one at a time, he's going to root out each and every traitor within Pinehearst's walls, and he's going to make every one of them pay for it.

Well, he's not askin' any questions. That means one thing. Staring him down, Niki's teeth clench tight, her brow determinedly, deeply furrowed and knit. She tries to take Mr. Bennet's advice from months ago — and follows her own instinct. Think like Jessica. Throw him off. Keep him out. She's no pro, but she knows a little something about the twists and turns of her mind. And how it can be manipulated.

"Get outta my head, old man."

Arthur is met with the woman's strong-willed resistance, but he's too overpowering. With a flinch, a few of Niki's key thoughts, memories, slip through and echo back to the head of Pinehearst.

This morning, a young African American woman across from Niki, "The question is, what are we doing to stop them? What can we do to stop them, Niki? You've been inside. Don't they have any weaknesses? Chinks in the armor we can exploit?" Niki answers, "I used to think they were the good guys. Once upon a time."

Nathan, on a park bench, "So maybe we cut their political ties. If I'm not already a non-entity, if Peter hasn't already— maybe he could… Do that thing he does. The illusions. Maybe he could resign for me." Niki answers, "Yeah, maybe. And I think I know a way to slow down their work in the labs. All of them. Everywhere. To just… shut them down. We'll beat them, Nathan."

Peter, with a scar across his face, ""I can't keep doing this. I just wish it would stop." There's a moment. "And I'm not going to drag you down with me, Niki. Go home to your son."

I have what you want," Niki hands something to a man in horn-rimmed glasses.

It's all easy enough for Arthur to see. While her initial resistance does catch the man offguard, when the information begins to flow freely, he puts it past him. He's getting what he needs to know, and what he is seeing is beginning to anger him even further. He has no idea who the African woman is, exactly, but he most certainly recognizes his oldest son. His oldest son being disloyal. His other son comes next, but there's something different about him— the scar across his face. The last time Arthur saw Peter, he didn't have the scar… granted, it could because he sapped regeneration from him and it's a new injury, but it looks too old to be new. It's something he'll have to look into. And then, the woman in front of him handing something to Noah Bennet. Unable to see what it is, but he doubts it's something Not Important.

Pulling his hand away from Niki, Arthur breaks eye contact at the same time. He knows enough, what with this and what he's gathered from Cass, to know the woman in front of him is a traitor. Arthur doesn't like traitors. "Well," he says, frowning at the woman, showing an air of fatherly disappointment. "Care to explain?"

Reeling after the unwelcome intrusion of her mind, Niki glares darkly at Arthur. Nope, as a matter of fact, she doesn't care to explain, sorry! She knows full well that Arthur could get even more from her mind with just another look, because boy, she's been traitorous. She's expecting Micah to come out at any minute wondering why she's not inside yet, and if Arthur sees him, if he somehow figures it her son is a part of this—

Arthur is crazy powerful. Niki knows that. It doesn't stop her, right this second, from grabbing at the hand on her shoulder and wrenching.

Imagine her surprise when she's not quite as strong as she expects.

"You can either attempt to explain and buy yourself enough time to maybe escape," Arthur begins, the small hint of sarcasm in his voice indicating that he doesn't believe that in any way, "or I can force the explanation out of you." What he's not expecting, however, is for Niki to grab his arm and wrench it. She manages to do so, putting Arthur in a rather awkward position as he's forced to turn his body, lest his hand break (not that it matters too much, having regeneration and all), and he responds in kind. A large voltage of electricity shoots up his arm from his shoulder to his hand, covering the distance in mere milliseconds.

With a cry, Niki instantly lets go. A face that had been confused makes the sudden leap to pained as she jolts back against the car door, her body spasming and her breath catching. "What— is there to explain," she manages to hiss out, glaring daggers. "Someone has to stop you!" Kinda wishing she wasn't one of those someones. Shuddering, pained, she falls down along the open car door and tries to claw her way inside the vehicle. Her only thoughts are on being anywhere but here, where Arthur is so close to Micah.

Stepping up behind Niki, Arthur reaches down and grabs her by the shoulder, pulling her out of the car. He stands her up, slamming her against the back driver side door, reaching out. "Your usefulness has run out," he says, reaching a hand out. "In other words? You're fired." Hand closes around the woman's throat. Arthur may have already gained heightened strength from Peter and he doesn't need to bother with taking Niki's, but he certainly isn't going to leave her with it. As far as the Head of Pinehearst is concerned, she doesn't deserve it.

Niki struggles. She fights. She should be able to at least get away for a second before she's beat down again by one of Arthur's many powerful abilities, but instead, she's shoved against the car. "Nnnh—" She clutches at Arthur's arm. "No!" she manages to shout. "Get away from me!" Is he killing her? She's not sure what's happening, but her boots scramble against the ground, her hands clench on, her muscles still jarred from the electric shock, to make it stop. It doesn't.

An indistinct white energy, an imprint of herself, starts to be sucked from the woman's body toward Arthur's.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Unless otherwise stated, the content of this page is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License