2008-07-13: Retribution

Starring:

Lee_icon.gif Kory_icon.gif Sophie_icon.gif Cam_icon.gif Ian_icon.gif Elisabetha_icon.gif Novak_icon.gif Rochelle_icon.gif Gabriel_icon.gif Arthur_icon.gif

Guest Starring: Thom

Summary: One side is going to get what's coming to them.

Date It Happened: July 13th, 2008

Retribution


(Meanwhile: Locked In)

Deveaux Building

Lee is hanging around at Kory's place explaining just how unfair it is that he got kicked out of a club with his hipster pals last night. "It's ridiculous, all I did was say to the bouncer that approaching Coryat's Crudities as if it was just some vulgar Bildungsroman was like giving his mother condoms for Mother's Day. Even if she needed them, they shouldn't come to her that way. But the music was loud and the bouncer thought I was comparing his mother to a Marxist translator of Boethius, so…well, one thing led to another, he grabbed me, Joule kicked him, and we ended up thrown out again…. It's getting where you can't have a decent conversation about literature at Call Crete concerts anymore. I blame Youtube, the whole scene has gone downhill ever since they got featured on the front page. So how have you been?" Clearly he thinks she is doing a bit better since he feels entitled to dump his VERY IMPORTANT complaints on her again.

Kory just blinks at Lee. Some of his music has always gone way, way, way over her head. When he mixes it with his morose, weapons grade old literature, she's lost entirely. "Um. Jumbled," she says, honestly, heading for the kitchen to brew another pot of coffee, since one visitor always leads to multiple ones in the Batcave, it would appear.

Sophie is in her own apartment at the moment. She is able to relax there, take off the stifling clothes. She's in a pair of shorts and a tank, much more weather appropriate clothing, and finishing off a salad. So peaceful a scene, the calm before the storm.

With D.L. having taken Micah out for… well, something, Cam is left on his own. Playing video games fills some of the time, but starting to get bored, he makes his way out of the apartment and heads towards Kory's. Given he's facing summer heat with a physiology that would prefer living in Antartica, he's wearing just a pair of swim trunks at the moment, as if he was on his way to or just from the pool. He approaches Kory's door and knocks.

There's Ian, at Kory's door. The grandparents must still be in town, because he's dressed like a refugee from a Lands' End catalogue, rather than someone who aspires to be the fifth Ramone. He has a plastic tray balanced on a hand, rather carefully, as he leans on the doorbell with a fingertip. And subsequently shorts it out - the electronic chime dies away into a stifled BZZZZRrrrrt, and Ian is left looking chagrined. Sith fail.

Cheerful music plays, as the grim reaper rides the elevator up. The reaper is tired, because she has been walking up and down halls throughout the Deveaux Building, asking around for Kory Alexander. Maybe it has only been about half an hour, but that's half an hour on legs that are about as strong as a small child's. The blonde woman in some designer jeans and a low-cut pink top, pauses outside an apartment, not knowing who might be living here… And then rings the doorbell with her left — and only — hand. And the apartment she rings the doorbell of is… Not Kory's! Nope. It's Sophie's! Elisabetha waits outside, as her legs ache, making her want to sit down. But she can't sit down! She needs the Muse to find her Teacher! She knows they don't like each other… But he hasn't come home in two whole days, and there was that fire on the news…

Emily promised the worried Elisabetha she would find Novak, as she went out to take a cab to the hospital, just incase he wound up there after the fire. But Elisabetha couldn't wait. So here she is!

Man, there's time for a bunch of narration while waiting for Sophie to answer the door. Elisabetha rings the doorbell again.

Lee replies to Kory as if her statement was one of understanding rather than…not. "Exactly, jumbled. Exactly. The world's gone mad. Oh, uh, I think someone's at your door, your bell kinda made a sickly sound…want me to get it or get rid of them or…?" Because if there's anything Lee's good at, it's getting people to not want to talk to him. Shocking.

See that? What'd I tell you? It's like some sort of call goes out. "Lee, make yourself useful and get the door, would you?" Kory frowns as the doorbell makes a dying sound. "Must be .." Oh, any number of her friends could've killed her doorbell. "Lee, let them in. People are welcome here, you know? Be civ—no, strike that. Be nice. No, still too mild. Be human."

Pigeons coo in distress and flap away as the iconic Deveaux Rooftop gets a very sudden trio of visitors. Arthur Petrelli turns his face to the sun, holding his arms apart. "What a beautiful day for retribution. The sun is shining. The birds are chirping." He looks to the rooftop about him. "Oh Charles. I'd say I'm sorry to turn your lovely building into a battleground, but…" The man gives a shrug of one broad shoulder. "We did have our differences after all." Now that he's quite finished speaking his mind to a dead man, Arthur addresses those he's brought with him. "Slow me down, and I won't hesitate to get you out of my way. Keep up." He doesn't sound like he's kidding. With that, he stalks to the rooftop entrance, forces it open and …

… Disappears? No, he's skirting the shadows, made of darkness inside the penthouse apartment.

Behind him, on of the three who teleported in, is a [http://www.contactmusic.com/pics/lc/hangover_dublin_2_080609/keir_o%27donnell_5307704.jpg
young man] with a scruff of a dirty blonde beard and blue eyes wearing a sharp black suit and black-and-silver tie. He follows, obedient. Wonder whose apartment this is…

Novak was shot two nights ago, by an agent of Pinehearst. It was an accident. He understood now that she was trying to shoot two people who appeared to be solid, but who were, in fact, intangible. So he does not blame Paula. But damn it all if it does not hurt, even after having the bullet removed. He should still be laid up, to be honest. But this is important. The work at Pinehearst is destroyed. He has his laptop still, with all his research notes, but he does not have the resources anymore. Nothing to work on or with. So he offered to come along with Arthur. Presumably for the reasons he told the CEO. "I can watch your back. And mine. And everyone else's in the building. I do not need to be in perfect health to tell when someone is pulling a gun, or trying to sneak up on you. Dreams only work when you're asleep. I am your safeguard while you are awake." That is what he said. More or less. He may have phrased it a bit more humbly than that.

But now here they stand on the rooftop of the Deveaux Building. It's the first time Novak has experienced teleportation. He hates it. The sudden shift in sensory input from one place to another with no time to gradually cope inbetween is disorienting at best. And Novak is not at his best. Still, they have a job to do. He waits patiently for Arthur to finish monologuing, hoping he never starts doing that, and then follows as soon as Mister Petrelli starts walking. The loud noises of the city are hindering to Novak's efforts to stay aware of the situation, but he tries to tune out everything except for what he needs to focus on. The safety or absence thereof of Arthur will determine the safety of who he really wants to protect.

He does not yet know that the same person he wishes to protect is right where he wishes she wasn't.

Sophie turns toward the door. She has no particular reason to be worried, at the moment. She grabs a long sleeved robe, and quickly grabs her gloves as she walks toward the door, opening it. The person at the door surprises Sophie, "H.. hello." starting to slip on the gloves. "Can I help you?"

Cam looks up to Ian as the man approaches Kory's door too, and smiles, "Hey." Totally unaware of what's coming from the roof, he seems in a cheerful mood. He blinks as the doorbell's fried though, "Wow."
Ooh, caught. Oops. Ian's grin is sickly. "Oh, damn," he says, with a guilty little laugh. "Well, I can just pay to replace it, make sure she gets her security deposit back." HE knocks on the door, like that was what he meant to do all along.

Elisabetha blinks her wine-red eyes in surprise, as she recognizes Sophie. She thinks. Associating people with memories is still hard for her. Especially when she has to struggle against that dark thing that eats up her emotions. But… Yes, she definitely recognizes Sophie. She smiles and says, "Hello, Miss Neme! I didn't know you lived here too. I was looking for the Muse. I need help finding my Teacher. He…" she looks up and down the hall, and then back to Sophie.

She says quieter, "…He hasn't come home for a few nights. He went to work on Friday morning, and now it's Monday morning, and he hasn't called or anything. I'm really worried. There was a fire at the place where he works too. I was wondering if… If the Muse could maybe try to find him? See if he might be hurt somewhere? I found her address on a piece of paper at home. It didn't say her apartment number, just that she lived here. Can you take me to her, Miss Neme? Please…?" She bites her lower lip nervously, unsure now if she is imposing or out of line.

Lee breezes up to the door, "You never know, a bunch of savages in this town." and opens it with a smooth twist. Despite his kicking-out, last night must have gone pretty well. "Uh, Ian, right?" He has seen Ian out of his Jedi garb before. "Yep, c'mon in, she's right in there. No Spock ears or anything?" He intentionally mixes up Star Trek and Star Wars, despite knowing the difference before he could count to 10. But then he sees Cam and he immediately and obviously regrets his joke, even double-taking a bit. "Cam." he greets pleasantly. He opens the door wide for the two young men.

Kory is just done setting the coffee on since yeah, she expected the visitors. Her text message ringtone fires off: 'Under the Table and Dreaming' by DMB. She sighs, "Okay, now what?" not really expecting it to be much of anything important. But she loads up the text message from a number she doesn't recognize and finds:

FEDS DNSTRS - J

She raises both brows and comes out to the living room to greet her guests (family), phone in her hand. "Ian. Hi. Cam. Hi. Glad to see you. Shut the door. Lock it. Now." Because if there are Feds Downstairs, things are not good downstairs. She flips her phone back open and thumbs a message of her own, sending it off. And another. Then the Muse looks up, expression grave. "There are federal agents in the lobby. I don't know why. But I can guess." She shuts her eyes pensively for a minute, hand to her head in the Pstandard Psychic Pstance.

Lee says, promptly, "Drugs? Yeah, probably drugs."

The youngest of the Pinehearst employees intruding on the building — Thom — moves through the spacious top floor apartment. It's empty. He pauses at the kitchen table, picking up a half-gutted timepiece. Huh.

Arthur moves from shadow along the wall into the hall, leaving the door to Gabriel's apartment — oh yes, he saw those watches — wide open. "I'm going hunting." He almost sounds chipper about the prospect, truth be told. He teleports down, down down, appearing in an empty hall in the middle of the building. Novak's perception is handy, but Arthur has mightily good hearing these days.

Some dozen or so odd floors down, in the lobby, there's a gunshot. That's no concern of Arthur Petrelli's, however. No, he's listening for something else.

Thom, meanwhile, descends out of the empty apartment, jogging down the stairs. A breeze follows him, a breeze that turns into a violent wind, swirling about his suit. As he strides through the building floor by floor, that wind takes on a near hurricane force by the time he reaches the floors above Sophie and Kory's apartments. It whips open doors, slamming them open, shut, open, shut. Come out, come out, wherever you are…

The fifth floor is still twenty-five from the top, yet just far enough from the lower floors to be unheard, or really notice anything going on at all. For Rochelle, however, the top floor is getting closer. A nice little trip up the staircase, right? Nothing odd about it.

The woman has a belt seemingly full of an array of tools- a common thing, when she stops over here- and happens to be invested in making sure something fits into one of the tan pockets.

BANG.

The gunshot that sounds off downstairs runs up her spine, and for a moment, Rochelle stays stock still, as if someone might come barreling through the door on her stairwell platform. Quickly following, the ruckus from the upper floors from the doors takes her attention away. Time to decide, huh? Rochelle picks the closer level, taking the stairs upwards two at a time. She can hear the wind- but anything that she might be feeling? Stops ten feet away, leaving her with a nice breeze. All of a sudden, the same platform with Thom- has a tall, broad brunette on it too. If there's one thing she learned so far, it is shoot first and ask questions later. Talking is just as bad as a monologue! Though she has no gun, she has a fist. A big, calloused fist. And Rochelle throws it right at Thom as soon as she appears near him, having leapt up like some kind of monster guarding a dungeon.

Novak notices all those timepieces as well. He puts it together easily. They're in Sylar's apartment. One of two people he came here to find. Novak frowns as he hears an odd noise like a depth charge going off, only much fainter, and then suddenly flinches as a sharp, familiar noise reaches his ears immediately following. His perceptions are presently cranked up, so he even feels the impact in the floor. He clears his throat just as Arthur vanishes, and turns to Thom, so say, "A gun has been fired on the bottom floor. It sounds like it hit the ground rather than a person. There was also a contained explosion of some kind… I am going to wager it was generated by someone's 'gift'. That probably means that we no longer have the element of surprise." He also noticed a car drive up onto the curb, but he declines to mention it.

Instead he picks up something else. He hears two mild vibrations in the air, nearly masked by all the other sound waves bouncing around. They sound familiar… But before he can place them, Thom starts slamming doors. Novak closes his eyes, and nods his head, wincing with each door slammed. He has to try to cut through it all. He focuses his mind, and tries to find those two vibrations, as he moves out the door, and calls, "I need to find someone. Stay here or don't." He heads towards the stairs, just as Rochelle is coming up them. He nods politely to her, having heard her rampaging up the steps awhile ago, and continues on his way, leaving Thom to be assaulted by an angry woman.

He can't tell to whom those two voices belonged, but he recognized them. Once of them was probably Kory Alexander, since she lived here. The other was… He couldn't tell. Hurrying down the stairs, even as pain radiates from his side in waves that are all the more agonizing for his ability to feel them more clearly than most, he tries to make sure that second voice isn't who he thinks it is. It might be a jump in logic, but he makes those all the time. "If she is here, she is going to be grounded," Novak mutters to himself as he runs down the stairs, even as his bandaged side starts bleeding under his coat and shirt.

Sophie is paying attention to Elisabetha, and has no special senses. So, at first, she's answering the question, "I.. I suppose that will be alright. I don't know if she knows where your teacher is, though." then comes the loud slams. First one, which doesn't attract suspicion, people do slam doors. Then another, and another, in quick succession. "What is?" she frowns, that can't be good. "Maybe we should both go there, now." as she closes, and locks her door, prepared to rush Elisabetha toward Kory's apartment.

Cam smiles up to Lee, "Hi Mr. Jones." Then he's stepping inside, waving to Kory as he says to Ian, "It's ok. I freeze stuff I touch sometimes too." He then blinks at Kory's words, stepping quickly the rest of the way inside so the door can be closed and locked. He glances towards the ceiling at the sounds from up there and says, "Sounds like they're above us too."

It's really not a good idea to startle Ian. Things get shorted out. He reflexively (and foolishly) presses himself against a wall, the better to keep from zapping either Kory or her other guests, as little arcs of electricity start at his fingers and race up his arms. He doesn't hurt any of the other humans present, but the lights by him flicker and pop.

Elisabetha blinks as Sophie reacts to the doors slamming above them. She looks up slowly, and then she is grabbed and hurried towards Kory's apartment. "…Is… Something… Wrong…?" she asks in confusion between breaths as she runs along with the other woman. She also seems to be aware of something familiar somewhere nearby… She gasps for breath as she lets out, "Someone… Is… Suffering…!" Well, yes, a few people really, but one in particular is coming closer.

Lee glances at his watch, makes a sour face. "I'm supposed to meet a guy about getting a deal on some Supreme Court stuff, I should probably call him and…hey, Ian, come on, the wiring in these buildings is terrible as-is, take a breath, sit down, time out." He seems remarkably calm about the 'raid' - of course, he grew up in the Village during the age of cocaine. He is about to close and lock the door as requested when he sees Elisabetha and Sophie getting nearer. A snide comment comes to his lips, but, two students nearby, he swallows it. "In or out?" he says to the two, holding the door a moment longer. "Don't want to get hit with one of those flashbangs, those sting." So he's heard.

By the guy he threw one at with his brain.

Kory takes her hand down, frowning. She isn't a telepath. Peter is either not asleep or out of her range at the moment, it'd appear. And the same is apparently true for Gabriel. The two biggest guns she knows, and neither of them is holstered close enough to grab for. They're on their own, and the realization makes her blood run cold. "Lee, the building is modern, okay, could you stop blathering like a blatherskite for TWO SECONDS, you think?!" Oh, yeah, this is Kory a bit nervous. And then Sophie arrives — with Elisabetha? "wh-what are you doing here?" she asks, expression shocked and face pale.

A racket of banging doors and blowing wind at his heels, Thom jogs down the stairs, taking them on two at a time as well. He's only starting to get a funny look on his face, a quirk of 'wait, something's not quite right here' when he quite literally runs into Rochelle's fist. CRACK. He sprawls backwards on the steps with a bloody nose. "Hmnh…?"

Meanwhile, Arthur tilts his head to the side in a darkened hall and listens. Curious. Steely eyes narrow and crease. Aha. And— gone. He teleports.

Yet another visitor ventures toward Kory's apartment, leaning this way and that to get a glance past Elisabetha and Sophie into the apartment beyond. "…Kory? What's going on?" It's Peter — so it looks and sounds, down to every singular detail. "I'm sorry you couldn't get me— I could feel you… I came as soon as I could."

Rochelle steps up on the stairs to peer down at the man now drinking the blood streaming out of what is likely a broken nose. "Hi there, buddy." Her eyebrows lift up on her forehead, and Rochelle leans down to look in his eyes. "Mind tellin'me what the ruckus' about? Mmm?" Even with such an abbreviated tone, she manages to sound threatening. That, and the fact she just knocked him for a loop.

Novak continues leaping down the stairs. The doors have stopped slamming upstairs, which helps. He thought he heard something snap too, but with his galumphing about, it's hard to tell. Finally he comes out on the 'action floor' where everyone is. His side feels like knives are being stabbed into it and twisted around viciously, but he manages to retain his outward composure as he tries to steady his breathing.

Looking up the hall, Novak adjusts his glasses, even though he can clearly see without them that Elisabetha is standing right outside an apartment, and the voices of Kory and others indicate she is not alone. >So grounded<. He adjusts his tie, because appearance is important in situations like this, and advances as he breathes in and out shallowly. He knows he's bleeding. He can feel the wetness on his skin, and the cloth of his shirt sticking to his side. But he can deal with that later. Nothing else is important.

He strides confidently towards the apartment, his senses 'ping'ing off of everything in the vicinity, like a submarine's sonar. "Elisabetha," he calls out briefly as he gets closer. "You should not be here."

Sophie pauses, at Peter's arrival. A brief moment of relief, then she spins around as Novak, a less welcome presence, enters. She frowns at Novak, automatically moving halfway in front of Elisabetha, as she says, "Why shouldn't she? She was looking for /YOU/. Do you have anything to do what.." she glances upwards, meaningfully.

Cam blinks, looking to the door as Sophie and Elisabetha step towards it, and then suddenly Peter's there too. "Um… there's cops or someone coming, shouldn't everybody get inside?" He looks a little nervous now, glancing between the adults.

Right, deep breaths. Calm. It'll be cool. Ian's not quite hyperventilating - the overload just jangles his nerves further. But the blue glitter of electricity does begin to die down, and he offers a shaky nod to Kory. "What do we do?" Because attacking a Fed, albeit inadvertently, is a good way to get killed.

Elisabetha blinks as she sees Lee. When she and Sophie come to a stop, her legs are trembling so hard she has to hang on the other woman's arm just to remain standing. "H-hello… Mr…. Jones…" She doesn't recognize anyone else here except for Kory, so she focuses on her. She starts to pant out an answer, with, "I came… To ask… For—" but then there's Peter! Whoever that is! "…Huh?" she huhs in confusion. "You… Felt… Her?" She pieces together that… Hey! "Oh, you have… A gift… Too?" she asks the strange guy with the floofy little hair thingy eagerly, momentarily distracted. That makes three people she knows of! Wow!

Then she hears Novak's voice, and she turns her head so swiftly she nearly hurts her weak neck. Her red eyes widen, as she sees Novak approaching. "Teacher!" she calls, overjoyed. His lack of excitement to see her is not picked up on right now, because she is so glad he's okay! Then she turns to Kory, and says, "Thank you, Muse!" …Did Kory do something? Well, she must have, since Novak is here! It's like the rock that keeps away tigers. You don't see any tigers do you? So it must be working!

She then realizes that the suffering she was feeling… It's coming from Novak. "You're… Teacher! You're hurt!" She tries to move around Sophie, but her legs abruptly give out on her, and she falls to her knees. She keeps hanging onto Sophie's arm, but only for a few seconds. Then she looks down at her legs, which appear to be non-functional for the moment.

Lee protests instinctively against Kory's imprecation: "What did I say?" Not much of a protest, since it implies that he only pays partial attention to what comes out of his mouth.

He lets Elisabetha and Sophie in, "Hello, Elisabetha…Hi Sophie…" and is about to close the door again when the next visitor turns up.

"Oh, hey, uh, Peter…" It always takes him a minute to remember Peter's name, like Peter is just not quite important enough to get his name to stick. Chumminess takes the edge off the nastiness for the kids' benefit, but Lee still can't help but twist daggers. "I see you're not stuck in that sad little Guantanamart anymore. Did those half-wits come to their senses, figure out just how dumb it is to lock people up for no reason and decide to try doing something useful with their money instead, or did you just tell them their shoes were untied and bounce on out?" he says cheerily. Lee is absolutely determined that 'Guantanamart' is going to stick as the sneering insult of choice for shadowy conspiracy prisons run by mega powerful corporations. He worked on that one. He practiced it in the mirror. He put it on Urban Dictionary. He even has a collective noun chosen: 'a blue light of Guantanamarts'. It's going to catch on, dammit!

Lee eyes Novak sidelong as he comes up, but appears to be in agreement with Cam, saying things in his authoritative teacher voice: "Hey, look, we gotta clear the halls, people, did you not hear those flashbangs go off, I…hey, are you bleeding?…" Prompted by Elisabetha's pointing, Lee reaches the logical conclusion, that Novak is a drug dealer who has been shot by the feds. "Look, we won't say you were here, just…wait, 'Teacher'? You're 'Teacher'?" Lee goes from thinking Novak's a drug dealer to something much worse. Contempt curls the corner of his lip. But he doesn't make things worse just yet.

"Peter!" Kory breathes, still frozen in the spot where she'd just tried to reach him. "I'm so glad you heard me." She fights the urge to rush to him and hug him, though, because if the situation is as bad as she fears, he's going to have to turn and fight. "What's going on outside, do you know? It isn't just federal agents, is it? Not all that noise overhead—" Which actually seems to have stopped. Movable force meeting irresistible object — thanks, Rochelle. She backs toward her bookshelves. "We …" never did get to finish the escape hatch and tunnel "What now?" You promised me you'd be here for me. Don't die, Peter.

"Lee, could you cut it out, now is not a good time, okay?!"

Kory has to fight to maintain the calmness, such that it is. "Cam, get over here, okay? You too, Elisabetha. Sophie." Strategy, such that it is — strong ones in front, gentler, less powerful ones in back. Which leaves Ian and Lee in the front with Peter. Karmically speaking, self-defense is cool. …Isn't it? She gestures into the house, directing Sophie to sit Elisabetha down, as she recalls how weak the one-armed, red-eyed woman is. And with all the emotions flying high, the suffering may also be pressing on Elisabetha's psyche with no real way to stop the horror attached to her power if it's too much for her.

Then Novak's voice sounds from down the hall. And he enters. "Oh, this is going to be a helluva morning, I can tell," the Muse sighs, pinching her nose between her fingertips. It hasn't occurred to her yet that she stepped right into the leader/protector mode without even thinking about it. "He's bleeding. Sophie, you know where the first aid stuff is. And for God's sake, will somebody please shut the door?!"

Thom brings the back of his hand and wipes blood across his scruffy face. Hello, giant girl, where is my hurricane? He coughs and, struggling to scramble backwards up the stairs on his butt, manages to get out one word: "Pine… hearst…"

With everyone inside, Peter has no qualms about standing with Lee and Ian. Elisabetha gets a suitably bewildered and worried look. "No. It's Pinehearst," he says. Tense. Dire. "It has to be." He's the one to shut the door. And he locks it, all seven times. "Shutting the door's a good idea." The Petrelli (no lies there) turns around and throws an arm out toward Lee and Ian, sending them violently flying through Kory's apartment. As he whips his head around to the others, he grows taller, his form growing broader, and face melding into that of a much older and crueller man as the persuasive telepathic hallucination lets go. Some of the lines of the man's face are familiar to the one he was impersonating. Family resemblance, don'tcha know.

A bright, wide arc of crackling electricity shoots from Arthur's other hand, straight at Sophie. He wastes no time in hooking that very arm right around Kory, pulling her in. "You all think so loudly," he says to the apartment at large. "I could practically hear your thoughts from across the street." Whether that's an overstatement or not, Arthur certainly seems to know something — and he certainly seems to be angry. "Did you think I wouldn't find out? What some of you and your friends have been up to?"

Kory gets a gasp and the beginning of a horrified, betrayed, scream out before her air is cut off, and she goes limp, unconscious.

Rochelle's lips mime his word as he finishes it, and that jaunty sort of look she has for her sudden enemy fades into an angry frown, and she growls, her hand moving out to grab Thom by the collar, lifting the limp fellow closer off of the stairs. In that moment of silence where she opens her mouth to say something else- the rearing head of a scream bubbles out of the door to the floor below, only to be cut off early. "You try somethin' else an' I'll tear yer arms off." And Rochelle drops him roughly back onto the stairs, turning on her heel and skidding down the few stairs she had come from below, stepping out into the hall in silence, rigid and waiting for something else. Making sure.

Novak doesn't want to go inside Kory's apartment. He wants to leave with Elisabetha. But he is ushered inside before he can even complain, and just sighs as he watches Peter lock the door. "Pinehearst is gone," he offers simply to the assertion from the younger of the Petrelli brothers. "The building burned down two days ago." He starts to turn to Elisabetha as she is hauled inside and seated on a couch, but then people go flying, and he flinches from the sudden loud noises.

The electricity crackling and flashing would ordinarily just have Novak standing still and waiting for it all to stop, but instead he — remarkably calmly — walks across the room, and over to Elisabetha. He stands in the way of any stray fire that goes her way, and just puts his arms around her. He empties his mind of all thought. That's one of three ways he knows of to deal with a telepath. There's two others, but he doesn't have Telepathy, and he's not ready for the third. So he just thinks of nothing.

Cam blinks, eyes widening as 'Peter' attacks Lee and Ian. Even more when he changes into an older man. He scrambles back quickly, just getting some space between him and the intruder. Then, though, he grabs Kory. He frowns then, hands turning into fists which are then encased in ice, and the swimsuit-clad boy steps forward again, "Let her go!"

Sophie's shriek is heard as electricity courses through her body. She doesn't even have time to be surprised. It ends with her laying, twitching, on the floor and barely conscious.

He's no fighter, and thus Ian is taken totally unawares, sent flying into the wall with enough force to crack drywall. Rather unfortunately like a flung 'toon. He's not quite unconscious, but definitely stunned as he slumps to the floor, trying to reassemble his scattered wits and get himself back upright. There's a jolt somewhat in Arthur's direction, electricity flung wild from his raised hand, but nothing like his usual aim.

Lee says, "That's who I'm talking about, Pinehearst, those idiots wouldn't know how to AAAAAAAAGHHH!" He flies backwards, straight through Kory's picture window, it shatters all around his corduroy hipster shirt and he plummets outwards, to his doom. The end.

No, wait. No doom. No the end. His voice floats up from a comically short distance below the window. "God DAMN it!" He doesn't even worry about cursing in front of the students. Gasp! "Aggh, I'm bleeding! What the hell!" He's so outraged and shocked that his comebacks come in explosive bursts and begin with: "This isn't…this isn't Prague!" Learning moment, kids! "What kind of Grade-A! Monumental! Gargantuan! Distinguished! MORON defenestrates a random person who is just standing there minding his own business? While impersonating a sales clerk who works at a frickin' Bigfoot bookstore?! Really? Really? That's who you pick to impersonate? I mean seriously! Be Mark Twain or Joe DiMaggio or, or someone with a little class!" He is sprawled out on the wall under the window, more or less like it's the floor and he just fell off a couch onto it - the cuts from the glass and the shock of the impact aside. Fortunately Kory 's apartment is high up enough that nobody down below could really make him out. He slowly gets to his feet and leans in the window - it looks like he's looking down through a skylight, except sideways. "And another thing!" he begins.

Elisabetha is dragged/carried inside the apartment by Sophie, as Novak comes soon after. She can see the blood now, staining his shirt, and his very concerned. She ignores Peter (who is he anyway?) and settles on the couch, waiting to regain feeling in her legs. She nods at Novak's words. "I saw on the news… Your work burned down… I was worried when… You didn't come home…!" she offers in that broken manner of hers. "I came to ask… The Muse… To find you…"

Then people go flying. Elisabetha blinks and turns her head to look in that direction, but then there's electricity! She turns her head in the other direction, and then Kory is being grabbed and pulled without even being touched! What's going on!? Cam's ice fists, and now this old guy, and Ian is shooting electricity too! How many people have gifts anyway!? She turns expectantly to the broken window, waiting to see her 'other' teacher do something amazing!

But he just talks. And talks. And talks. She eventually turns her attention back on Arthur, trying to peek around Novak, who is standing with his arms around her. What's going on here? She looks up at Novak and asks, "Teacher… Why is… Why is he causing suffering? It's… People with gifts… We're supposed to… To END suffering! Not cause it…! We can't…" She reaches her arm up to her head, clutching at it, as though in pain, as she grits her teeth furiously, eyes closed. She seems to be struggling with something internally, unable to comprehend how someone with such power could use it so recklessly, to harm others.

Arthur drops Kory, stepping coolly over her unconscious body. As the boy rushes forward, he simply plants a powerful hand on his head— and the Sandman takes him away. As Ian's wild electricity crackles into the foyer behind him, the Petrelli patriarch begins to walk around the apartment, taking plodding, wandering steps about, looking at this and that. Meanwhile, there's some man rambling on and on outside. Did he throw him o— not important. "Good God."

He walks to the window. Looks out. Holds a palm out in Lee's direction. Flips gravity. Walks back into the apartment without caring what happens. "Get her out of here," he barks to Novak, walking to the desk. He runs his fingers along the computer, closing his eyes.

How many people have gifts? None.

Not anymore. Usually, the moment that she would have heard noise, she would have come barreling down the hall. But there's nothing up until the sound of heavy boots speeding up, and-

CRACK. Locks be damned, the metal door- along with most of its wooden frame, to which the several locks remain attached- caves in with a metallic scramble of noise and the splintering of the wall. And through it, tumbling with a loud growl through the maw of an opening, Rochelle, her belt clanking noisily and a raging expression reeling onto the only man really still standing while she's still gaining her balance back.

"Now or never-"

The entrance of this new woman is unexpected. Not only is Arthur being fed nothing from the computer, he didn't hear her coming until the door breaks down.

Rochelle is a wildcard.

"Who are you?" He stalks toward her, his presence looming and confident in frank spite of the woman's intimidating stature and anger. "A negator," he answers his own question, realizing. Immediately, he starts to fight it, staring her down with hardened blue eyes, pushing his powerful will against hers.

Appearing just behind Rochelle, shirt torn in more than a few places, the entire left sleeve missing, and even with a twig in his hair, Gabriel stands in the doorway. A murderous look passes over his face as he glares at the Petrelli patriarch, arm held out in front of him, the cold, black steel of a gun in his hand, lifted from one of the police officers just arriving on the scene down in the lobby. There won't be any abilities, here. Gabriel lost at their last encounter using their abilities, and this needs to be finished once and for all. "We weren't finished," he says, a gleam passing through his eyes for no more than a second— a gleam of hunger, revenge, and fury. There's no time for the man to respond— Gabriel pulls the trigger, the gunshot echoing throughout the room, the bullet headed straight for Arthur's skull.

If Rochelle hadn't been standing in the room, Arthur could have recovered. A bullet? At this angle? No big deal. It would have popped out, he would have kept going.

Not so now.

The look of cruel anger is permanently embedded on the face of Arthur Petrelli, father of Peter and Nathan, as he slowly falls down with a bullet hole squarely in his forehead. He joining the barely conscious or barely moving…

And he doesn't move. Cold blue eyes lose some of their steel as they point straight up at Kory's ceiling.

Lee skids down the wall a story or so, messing up his thrift-store-chic pants as he scrabbles for grip and tries to get the wall back under, uh, his feet, and obediently, the twist that gravity took twists right back. "Oh, nice moves, mumbles!" he sneers, laughing derisively, but more shakily, pressing himself flat against the wall to prevent further sliding, to get an actual handgrip, feeling for the first time the cuts and scrapes and pain.

In the end, Arthur trying to kill Lee saved his life. If Lee had still been high enough to be inside Rochelle's field, well, it's a very long way down.

The gunshot rings out but in the shocked silence that follows, Lee's voice continues, echoing from further down, distant, weirdly oracular in the screaming wind: "This isn't a comic book! This! Isn't! A comic book!"

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