2007-10-07: Connections Made

Starring:

Peter_icon.gif Sharon_icon.gif

Summary: Peter comes to visit Sharon the same day Cass already visited. They discuss Peter's newly acquired ability and means to keep it in check, and plans are discussed regarding new villains in town.

Date It Happened: October 7th, 2007

Connections Made


Power House Gym

It's afternoon. The same afternoon, in fact, that Cass stopped by to talk with Sharon and brought her flowers and a gatorade as a get-well gift. Not that Sharon is really all that hurt, since Peter healed her up. Even the burn wound she had from the fire is mostly healed now, though it still has a little clearing up to do. The gym itself is a decently sized gym, with a couple floors on it. The offices are on the bottom floor, with the actual gym on the top, though some of the private training rooms are also on the bottom floor. Sharon has been seeing clients for most of the day, and working in her Eskrima practice between clients. She's in a pair of black gym pants and a blue tank top right now, and she's at her office. There are a pair of rattan sticks mounted up on the back wall, though there is a spot where there used to be a poster or picture of some type that is currently bare. She's looking at changing her motivational poster. In addition, she's got what looks like an umbrella stand, though it has a few more of those sticks in it, of varying sizes, that she uses for training purposes for those who want to learn. Anyone at the front desk can direct someone to her office, of which the door is currently open. She's working at her computer, just finsing up some notes before she leaves for the day.

The day has gone by a lot slower than Peter'd like it to. Physically, he looks different than when she last saw him outside the cafe. His hair shorter, for one, no longer hanging into his forehead. The second would come from his skin tone. Paler than normal. As he opens the door to the gym, he muffles a cough behind his hand, before approaching the front desk and asking about Sharon. At the directions given, he nods and steps over to the office, pulling a cloth from his pocket and wiping his hands off before knocking lightly on the door frame and leaning inside, "Hello?"

Looking up from her computer, Sharon blinks, and then smiles a little bit at Peter. "Peter. Come on in," Sharon tells him. "I was actually going to give you a call once I got off, but looks like you got here first," the woman says, standing. "Close the door behind you; I don't have any more appointments for the rest of the day," she explains to him. "You looks like you've had a little bit of a rough day. You feeling okay?" the woman asks Peter, a hint of concern in her voice.

"Really? Interesting timing," Peter admits in a voice toned similar to a whisper, even if it's loud enough to hear. He steps inside the office, closing the door behind him, and letting his hand linger for a moment. When he turns to face her again, a hint of a smile tugs on the corner of his mouth, "I'm okay. Think I outdid myself is all. I'll be all right." He's conscious. That's a good sign in his book. "Had a couple rough days is all." The piece of cloth is pushed back into his pocket, and he steps in enough to be comfortable. "Why were you going to call me?"

"I wanted to thank you properly for what you did, after the dream and the fight where I was wounded," Sharon tells Peter. "Don't worry; we've got pretty thick doors here. Nobody should hear us," she assures Peter. The woods are a good, thick wood. "People get worried about admitting things like weight, so they put in the thick walls for that purpose". Not to mention the amount of weight upstairs, between the number of people and equipment. "And to see if there was anything I might be able to do to help with this…situation that might come up," the woman tells him.

"I was just glad I was able to help," Peter says, moving to find a seat as she mentions the thick walls. In another situation, that might have made him laugh more, the idea of weight worries making someone put in thicker doors, but when he goes to laugh (or hint at a laugh) he ends up coughing, pulling his hand up. There's a hint of tension on his forehead. "I'm not even sure what I'm supposed to do in this situation— telling other people what to do is difficult." There's that wince again. "But I did talk to some of the people involved and I'm considering getting… a group of people together. To try and figure this whole thing out…" But it sounds like he's not quite ready for that, yet. Instead… "Do you have… an… ability? Like the things you saw me do? Cause for a while.. after I met you… I wasn't able to sleep. Wasn't even tired." For a while? He actually looks tired, so maybe it's not working out so well anymore.

"You…so that's why you could do multiple things," Sharon says. "Then you have absorbed mine. The power I have is more of what I don't do. I haven't neede to sleep for eight or nine years now, and never needed much. If you absorbed that, then it's probably a hell of a shock to your system," she tells Peter. "It came gradually for me. It was gradual for me though. Kind of came in stages," she explains. "And count me as interested in helping," she adds.

"Yeah— it worked fine for a few days until I had to use another ability a lot," Peter explains, looking down towards his hands, which he probably wants to wipe off again. "I think two at once is a little much for me most the time, so it's… yeah— system shock. Ended up sleeping almost all day yesterday, and I'm still not feeling too great…" It sounds like this is an odd thing to him, too, but he does dismiss it with a, "I'm sure I'll be fine, once things settle. But I'm glad you'll help us. And if you don't sleep, you probably won't miss a call, unless you have an appointment."

"Hmm. That's strange," Sharon says. "I might be able to help you a bit with it; you got it all at once," Sharon tells him. "I studied biology in school, so there are a few things you can do. A lot of it is relaxing your mind and letting the body sort of do it's thing. Do you know about meditation at all?" Sharon asks him. "It might not help you with your abilities and using them; I have no idea if it helps in the use of other abilities that aren't directly related to it. I have a couple tricks I can do with it, but nothing flashy like what the woman with lightning can do". She gestures to the sticks. "It's why I tend to keep those in my bag". A laugh. "No, I don't often miss a call, no".

"I've been working on meditation, yeah," Peter says with a nod. "It's helped with some of them, but not sure how well it'll help with this. I think your ability might be clashing with regeneration— they're the only two I've encountered that are almost always on, always active when they need to be. And I had to regenerate a lot when— when things went haywire. Might regenerating for all I know," he admits with a grimace. But… "If it'll help with yours, I'll probably give it a try, see if that helps me when I start getting tired." There's a pause, but he does lean forward and ask, "What all can you do with it?"

"It could be," Sharon agrees. "And the main thing I can do with it is endure," Sharon says. "Think about it this way. You don't get tired, so what's stopping you from running a couple hundred miles, provided you put a good camelback pack on?" she asks him. "Though when you get more control over it, you'll find that you can push yourself to move at a peak efficiency". She pauses and thinks about it. "For example, you know when you're holding something above your head and you get more tired quickly depending on how heavy it is? You'll find that if you focus on the power, you can lift your maximum weight above your head and keep it there indefinitely. Or you know how when you sprint that your body moves at different speeds throughout the sprint? You can force yourself to keep moving for hours at the same pace as your sprinting speed. Of course, you'll also find that the most basic thing you can do is resist things like being shot with a tranquilizer dart, or that sleeping pills don't work so well, as you can forcefully counteract the drug".

"That's interesting," Peter admits, listening to her description of her own ability. Rarely does he get to ask someone how it actually works, so he is certainly paying attention. "I'd probably have to avoid using other abilities in conjunction, and I think I should attempt to sleep sometimes— it might not work with the fatigue caused by… everything else I can do. Makes sense— only got tired after that, never when I did anything normal. It was odd at first, not being tired. I cleaned my whole apartment— actually had a chance to listen to music for a change." And… other things. He glances back toward the door. "I guess that's handy when you're working in a gym. You switch clients and you're completely fresh and rested for the next one."

"I'd suggest getting between three and five hour's sleep if you've extensively used other abilities, see how that feels," Sharon tells him. "If you need more, then sleep more. Your body will adjust in time," she assures him. "We're extremely adaptive creatures". She smiles. "Quite useful. Not to mention that I have enough energy to devote to my own training, along with the time. It's why I was able to double major and still graduate in four years. Had the time to do the studying and research. What else was I going to do in Denver at three in the morning?" She shrugs a little bit at that. "So. That man who attacked us. I know a little bit about him. Kitty explained some. Who was he though? And I'd love to know how we all ended up asleep. Not much puts me to sleep. I was counting the time in years since I'd last slept until last week".

"Adaptive… me especially, I guess," Peter can't help but smile faintly as he says that. She'd already figured out his ability, which is adaptive in nature. Constantly adapting. "I'll try the sleep, can probably make myself if I have to. I definitely don't want to go through yesterday again." Sleeping all day is probably her worst nightmare, so she'd understand… "Sylar. Since you already know… he's… a bad guy. But hopefully he won't be a problem anymore. He… takes people's abilities. Not like what I do, he cuts open people's skulls, kills them and steals their ability that way. I've fought him a few times, but— he got the surprise on me. Good thing all of you were there." Since he got knocked out for a few moments. "As for sleeping— I think someone nearby had the ability to put people to sleep. That's probably what did it. All of us were losing control of what we could do— or at least I was."

"This is true. I knew he had the ability to draw people's abilities out. Didn't know the name. Sylar is a rather unique name, but I do hope we don't see him again for some time. Seems to me like we've got enough threats to deal with. I talked with your boss, Cass, earlier today. She's one of my clients. She's had a run in with one of them," Sharon tells Peter. "So it sounds like they're already on the move. If you like, I can try and do some sort of night watch through the city". Being unable to run out of energy, patrol is a role she tends towards. "I felt funny, but I didn't really lose control. I guess there wasn't much to really lose control over though. How can you lose control over not being able to sleep?" Sharon frowns at that mention of the sleep-inducing Evolved. "I'd love to know who that is, so I know to avoid them. Sounds like a natural rival, if he or she is on the wrong side. There's also a Company who showed up?" Her voice is low at the end. It's a capital-C bad company. "And yeah; you looked like you got a raw end of the deal for a bit there".

"You know Cass? Really?" That surprises Peter, makes him sit up a bit, and then, once again, he must cough. It makes it so he can't talk for a moment, but there's no blood evidenced on his hand, so he's not worried too much about it. "Yeah, the people in the dream that we saw are already out. That's actually how I ended up in trouble two days ago… I went to hunt one of them down." From the sound of things, it didn't work out too well. But… Sleeping guy on the wrong side… there's a hint in his eyes that he knows more than he says, but she brings up the Company… which makes him look down and away. "We really shouldn't talk about that. It's… there's some things that it's better if you know less about it. I know that some people don't share that opinion with me, but… this is one of them. There is a Company, and it's keeping incidents like what happened in the cafe from getting to public ears. And trust me… you don't want the public to know about what we can do. What others like us can do."

"Cass knows about me, but she indicated that she already knew about us, after we both danced around the issue for a good twenty minutes," Sharon says. "But no, I generally keep this on the down low. Nobody knew until recently, in fact. People just commented that I rarely slept. But it seemed to me that the chances of meeting her as a client, who happens to be your boss, had to be more than coincidence. She brought me the flowers and a get-well Gatorade," she tells Peter. "Told me she knew you and Elena, and that she was told I'd been shot, but was up and about". A shrug as she gestures to the healed arm. "Hard to hide the lack of injury in a place like that. I'm not sure what to think about them yet. I knew there were probably others. Read some books. One by a fellow named Suresh who supposedly lives in New York". It's required reading for all Evolved, or seems like it. A frown is given at the mention of him tracking one of them down. "What happened when you tracked them down?"

"No— I've generally stopped believeing in coincidence where this is concerned," Peter says with a nod, looking toward the healed arm. Not only did they all meet at a cafe, but Elena had met Kitty, and Peter's ex-girlfriend was there, his maybe-future wife, the guy who can put people to sleep he also knew, a dreamwalker who worked at a store just a block away from the one he works at… he's not figured out how the teleporting woman and the kid were connected to him, but he wouldn't be surprised if they were. "We're all connected— or seem to be. And she knows I can heal people, so she probably suspected what happened there. And to be honest… I don't know what to think of them either, except that… I know it would be worse if someone didn't cover these incidents up, and right now they're the only ones with the capability of doing it." He coughs again, a little more ragged this time, before responding. "I only found one of them, the woman. I got hurt… but I'm okay now. And she still got away." How does someone say: I died. Twice.

"I know. I know both Kitty and Kory. The precog and the Dreamwalker, though only Kitty knew about my abilities before. Elena I had seen before. Never seen the others though," Sharon says. "Though do remind me not to get on the bad side of the woman with the lightning fingers". That hurt. A lot. "I try not to question these future things too much. I see way too much how things cascade. One small change in the night and the entire day can be completely different". A nod is given. "That may be so. Admittedly, I'm glad my ability is subtle. I'm not sure I want to go chatting with them too much". A frown is given at that cough. "You sure you're alright? You're coughing quite a bit there, and you heal. Shouldn't that have kept you pretty healthy, your cells clearing themselves up?" A frown is given at the injuries he took. "Well, it's good that you were able to heal from the injuries. But at least you've seen her in action now for yourself, instead of just in the dream. That counts for something when we deal with her again".

"Better not to get on her good side either," Peter says with a hint of that halfsmile again. Then he frowns, looking at his hand that he's been coughing into. "This has sort of happened before. Where I felt sick for a few days, even with regeneration, but…" He seems vaguely bothered by it, as he probably should be considering. "I should probably stop in and see Cass soon— she knows enough about medicine, and I'm not sure I trust a hospital with blood testing." Only place that might know enough would be the Company, and— big C is not one he wants to deal with right now. If he can avoid it. "I'm probably just using my abilities too much. That's all." He does nod, though. "The important thing with her is to not let her touch you— don't get physically close. Don't hit her with anything solid. Tasers should probably work. Or holding her with my mind. I'll do that next time."

"That makes my skills against her rather limited. Twenty years of martial arts and weapon training, but none with firearms," Sharon tells the man. "Though perhaps a strike to the head would be safe, if she affects people with her hands". A quick kick should be doable, if she's got shoes on. Steel-toed boots maybe. Or thrown weapons. Sharon is one of those who refuses to be defeated just because touch is dangerous. "I know a bit about biology, and enough about medicine from my mountain climbing days, but nothing about serious bloodwork, or I'd offer to help". A nod is given about the cough. "It's possible," she agrees with him. With all the abilities he has, who knows what it might cause? "My other question is, do you think that the people who handled crowd control when we left are likely to come after us?" She doesn't think they got a good look at her, but who knows?

"Not just her hands— any part of her. That's what I thought to," Peter winces, moving to stand up now, perhaps restless. He turns away to cough into his hand yet again. Yeah, he's not looking too well. "But a quick blow might do the trick. She's not excreting it all the time everywhere— or she wouldn't be able to keep clothes on. Hands are probably just the most convenient." The blood work will certainly be left in Cass' hands, so he just nods and half smiles at her offer to help, before… wincing. "It's possible. If they recognized. They haven't yet, though— they have bigger things to worry about. You might be safe for the moment. Which is why it's better to leave them out of as many conversations as possible. I can't really stop them if they come to take you."

Sharon nods. "I don't plan on it, not if I'm not sure my location is secure. But knowing nothing is more dangerous than asking about them," Sharon says. Not that it'll keep her from sniffing around. "It might work. Do you want a ride somewhere? You're not looking too good, Peter," Sharon says, concerned now as she stands, too. "And I'm not much of a threat. Not like I'm shooting fireballs down main street". She just…doesn't sleep. It's the most harmless superpower one can have, aside from creating gummy bears or something ridiculous like that.

"No, I'll call a cab. I should be fine," Peter says, even pulling out his phone. "Could use your number, though. I got the one for the gym when I came in, but personal number could be helpful." Especially if he needs to call for possible 'get together' in the future. "You're hardly the type they worry about being free," he adds, agreeing with her. "The most they'd be worried about is you knowing too much about them and what they do. They like their secrets."

"283-6087 is my cell phone," Sharon says, pulling her's out. "Your's?" she asks in response. "And doesn't everyone like their secrets? I can understand that. As long as they're on the lighter side of grey, I'm not going to concern myself with them as a direct problem. These others are more of a threat". That's her view on it, at least. "I'll keep an eye out during the nights, and if I see anything, I'll give you a call". He's the most likely to be awake, given that he has her power.

With his cellphone open, Peter quickly programs the number in, then says, "283-1407." There's a nod about secrets, even if a hint in his eyes shows that he doesn't necessarily like them— or how they're kept. "They're not evil— and they don't go out of their way to hurt people as far as I can tell, but they can be controlling and I wouldn't put myself in their influence if I can avoid it." With the number programed in, he keeps the phone in hand, even as he starts to move toward the door. Again, there's a cough, more a clearing of his throat, and he nods. "The others are the biggest threat. And I'll keep my phone on, in case you see anything. I'll probably be awake, unless this keeps up."

"Understandable. Oh, when you see Elena, feel free to give her my number. Cass told me she was interested in self defense lessons, and I could probably get her a discount here". The sorta-friends-but-have-to-save-the-world discount. "I'll see you later then, Peter. Good meeting you more fully this time. Let me know if there are any meetings I should be in on". Not that she's going to wait to poke around, but being in the loop is good, too. His phone number gets programming in, too.

"I'll let her know. And I might be interested in that too. It might keep me alive longer," Peter says with a hint of a smile again, lopsided as it is, before he opens the door and nods. "It was nice to meet you too, Sharon, under more normal circumstances. I'll give you a call when I figure out how to do that." There's a couple things he'll need to figure out beforehand, and first… he needs to get feeling better. Stepping outside, he starts to dial for a taxi, even before he makes it all the way out the front doors.

"That could certainly be arranged," Sharon tells Peter as he heads on out. Meanwhile, Sharon will return to working on her computer and getting things sorted out with the last bit of paperwork for the day. This has certainly been a rather busy day for her, so she's hoping tomorrow is a little more quiet.

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