2008-05-21: Safeguard

Starring:

FuturePeter_icon.gif Elle_icon.gif

Summary: Peter (2012 edition) appears in Elle's apartment to ask a favour.

Date It Happened: May 21, 2008

Safeguard


Elle Bishop's Apartment - New York City, NY

Elle Bishop doesn't go out much, these days. In fact, she never went out much to begin with, being confined to the Company for as long as she was and having very strict rules on when she could leave. 'Social life'? The concept is alien to her. So it is that she came home after work, fixed herself a very simple dinner, and settled down in front of the television. Exciting life, right? How… mundane.

Mundane is usally a sign that something interesting is about to happen. Or that it should happen, at the very least. A shifting in the air is the only real warning that someone has reappeared. Peter's avoided the apartment since he left that morning, but that doesn't mean he takes the time to knock before entering. Teleporters rarely hold on to their manners when it comes to entry into a friend's house. Even him, apparently. The television gains a brief glance, before eyes settle on the blonde woman. "Elle." There's a hint of awkwardness in his voice.

The shifting in the air goes unnoticed, and it isn't until she hears her name that Elle becomes aware of someone else in the apartment. She jerks her head around with a start, disturbing the plate in her lap but not quite overturning it. Clearing her throat out of mild embarrassment, she leans forward to set the plate on her coffee table, then rises from the sofa. "Hey, Peter," she replies, accompanied by a warm smile. She's working very hard at keeping awkwardness out of her own face and voice, with decent success. "You scared me."

"Sorry," Peter apologizes, actually meaning it this time as he runs a hand over his slicked back hair and glances away for a long moment. "I— I wanted to let you know that I need your help. Not just— me, but the people who are helping me here." Moving closer, he still keeps an acceptable distance as she rises from the sofa. "My father— he found out about some of the work that I'm doing against him. I'm not sure if he knows I'm from the future, but I wouldn't put it past him figuring out. I had to move some people who were helping me into this building for their own protection, but… it would be better if they could protect themselves. And you're one of the few people I know who has actual training in subduing people like us."

This isn't making a lot of sense to Elle right now, and her face shows it. As he speaks, her expression becomes increasingly more perplexed and conflicted. She raises her hand partway through as if to ask him to pause, then thinks better of it and lowers it again. She's silent for a long moment after he finishes, staring at him expectantly as if waiting for something more. Finally, she says, "I have no idea what's going on. I've been trying really hard to stay out of it." Until Peter-from-the-future showed up in her apartment and pulled her in. Shaking her head, she adds, "I'm not saying I won't help. I will. Just tell me what you need. Who, what… you know the rest."

"I know you have— and I know you'd prefer to stay out of it," Peter says with a grimace, keeping his voice soft. It sounds almost as if he's regretting that she's involved at all now. "You know about Pinehearst, and that my father is in charge of it." His father killed her father… right in front of her. And you know how he stole many of my abilities, which means he's extremely powerful now— but I've been trying to work against him, work against his plans. Trying to set things up so that he won't succeed." There's a pause for a long moment… "He was working on a formula, an injection that would give normal people abilities like us. It won't completely work out how they want, but what happens is bad enough. You know the Company's desire to keep people like us under control. In some ways they weren't wrong… but imagine what would happen if people with money— people who desired power… could have it."

"I don't really want to," Elle admits, looking almost apologetic in her own right. "It's not a world I want to live in." Raking her hands back through her hair, she slowly takes a seat on the sofa once more. Her eyes are fixed on Peter still, but her confusion is gradually beginning to wane. "So whatever I can do to help you, Peter, I'm going to do. Even if it means getting involved when I've been trying not to." Resting her head against her hand, elbow on the back of the sofa, she casts a vaguely sad smile in his direction. "Besides, I have a personal stake in all of this. I can't tell you how badly I want him gone, Peter."

There's a lot that he's leaving out of the description of the future he comes from. The Muse had always called him on being vague. As she sits down, he steps a little closer, but just enough so that he can hover at a short distance. He makes no move to sit down himself. Not yet. "I know— I want to stop him too," he says, understanding her stake in it. "Her name is Kory Alexander. She lives in this building as well." The room number follows soon after.

"Wait, wait, hang on." All of a sudden, Elle is back on her feet, shuffling around the apartment in search of something apparently elusive. "Sixteen years of medication and torture and experiments mean my memory sucks," she explains, pulling open a drawer and rifling through it for a few seconds. "Finally." Pen, paper: SECURED. Turning back around to face him, she asks, "Kory?" Then she scrawls down what she remembers of the name and room number. "Does she know?"

Even as she gets a pen, Peter faintly smiles as he watches her move, correcting her memory as he finally moves close enough to read what she wrote. "Yeah, I told her that she should contact you. I'd not known where you lived at the time, and I figured it would be better to… have you contact her first. That way it's not just some stranger approaching you and saying she's a friend of mine." There's a hint of a smile. He has a lot of friends, past, present and future. But few that he would actually call close in any time. Kory's one who migrated to close rather quickly, though.

"I'm surprised I haven't met her before." Tucking the paper into her pocket, Elle returns to the sofa and settles down once more. "Actually… I probably have. She's probably been to the cafe." Leaning her head back against the sofa, she allows her eyes to close for a few seconds, considering the proposition. "Alright. So, self-defense, right? How far do you want me to go? I can show her basic 'get out of dodge' moves, but if you're really worried about her, I can show her how to use a gun. Does she have… is she— like us?"

"She is, but her ability won't help her against my father," Peter says with a grimace, well aware that dream walking won't do much of anything against his dad. In fact it would probably make her more vulnerable to him, he's not completely sure. What she does know… "Self-defense should be enough, evade and escape if possible, but depending on his abilities, it won't do much good. A way to subdue him might be the best bet. He should have my regeneration, but I've noticed that an injection of certain tranquilizers works just as well on us as it would on anyone else. I can get some supplies for you. Those kinds of guns would work better than bullets ever would."

"Tranqs?" Raising her eyebrows, Elle seems almost… disappointed, if only for a split second. There's a strange little laugh as her eyes fall to the side. When she looks back up to him, she seems to have accepted the notion. After all, disabling someone like Arthur Petrelli isn't exactly simple, nor is it without significant risks. Tranquilizing? Much better option. Ducking her head in a nod, she says, "Sure. The principle is the same. I'll show her how to use a stun gun, too. Since not everyone is a walking taser."

In some ways, tranquilizing would be one of the most effective ways to disable him. Even if that will be difficult too. "It is possible to kill him, but it's extremely difficult to do it," Peter explains, still sounding somber even if she's laughing. His mood is often too serious, always has been, but that's gotten worse in recent years. Not that she saw what made it get worse. "Thank you. The— the people I moved here include Niki Sanders and her son, as well as a boy she was taking care of. Niki knows how to handle herself in a situation, but… if you keep an eye out for them… I would appreciate that as well."

Niki knows how to handle herself provided her more psychotic, less controllable alter-ego doesn't make an appearance. Elle knows it, but still she doesn't say it, as Peter's mood is such that she doesn't dare discourage him. Besides, it's possible the woman has learned control since Elle last checked the Company's files on her. "I will," she assents with a slight smile, nodding again. "Did you talk to Hiro? He owns this building. He can probably arrange security cameras, make sure someone's watching them." For a moment her expression grows almost sheepish or embarrassed. "I'm still not sure I understand what you're expecting to happen. You think Arthur might come after them?"

There's many reasons why he brought up Niki personally, but he isn't going to go into those right now… "I can't find Hiro," Peter says with a shake of his head. "I think he took a trip outside of time, cause otherwise I should be able to find him no matter where he went. But I can get someone else access to the cameras so they can watch them," he adds. Specifically Micah. He's not going to reveal the boy's power right now, but she can imagine how he'd get access to them. Many different ways he could do it… "I think my father will come after anything that stands in his way, and we're trying to do just that… I also intend to go after Pinehearst myself… To get someone out of there. I'm just not sure how many people I can risk taking in." One rescue may not be worth all the people they could lose.

"After what he did…" Her breath catches, and Elle turns away for a moment with her eyes downcast, fidgeting with the hem of her jeans. A second or two later, she looks back to Peter with a more somber expression than she's had for the rest of the evening. "You know you have me, if you need it." The corner of her mouth quirks - almost a smile. "Not that I think you do." Or maybe he just wants to keep her out of harm's way. It's a possibility she hasn't discounted, of course; Pinehearst is a dangerous place, particularly with Arthur inside, and her last venture there was not an especially successful one. Still, her help is there, offered. "I'm getting better at sitting on the sidelines."

"Of course I'd want you along," Peter says, still serious even as he examines her face carefully. "It's not even a question, really. You've been there— you know the building a little more than others, and you understand the dangers better than anyone else I could bring— besides Gabriel." But there's a hesitant sound to his voice. Maybe that's one person he's avoiding still. "But I'd want you there."

Like a child who's just been praised, patted on the head for doing a good job, Elle sits up a little straighter in her seat. It's an unconscious movement, an instinct over which she has little control. "I need you to know something," she says after a time, tipping her chin down to regard him with a level stare. "If I do go with you, and he's there— I can't promise…" How does she word this? It sounds too brutal, in her mind, to put it plainly. She switches gears, pulling in a quick breath before speaking again. "I might kill him. …or try to."

For a long moment, there's complete silence. The intensity on his face increases. Considering the topic, it's probably expected. The scar across his face stands out even more for a moment, thanks to narrowing of eyes and lowering of eyebrows. Then Peter finally nods, stepping forward to clear some of the distance between them, getting closer than he has since the last time he left the apartment. "If it comes down to it, I might try to kill him myself. You don't have to hold yourself back except to keep yourself alive. I don't think you getting yourself killed trying to kill him will benifit anyone in the end." A hand reaches up to touch her cheek briefly, before dropping away again. "I'll keep in touch on any plans I get together to go in there."

When his hand comes to rest on her face, Elle tilts her head against his touch just slightly. "I'm not going to be careless," she replies, her tone meant to be reassuring. "I won't go out of my way to find him. I don't really have a death wish." The words 'any more' seem to linger in the air, unspoken. "Just keep me posted. I'll introduce myself to Kory and Niki so they know who I am. I'll see if— if I can find Hiro, too." Although if even Peter couldn't find him, she doubts she'll be able to.

"Niki did meet the other you— at least briefly I think," Peter adds as he backs up a few steps to put some distance. "She's changed in the last few months, though, so you shouldn't need to worry about certain… problems anymore." There's a hesitation, the same kind people tend to have when they may not really want to leave, before he just says, "I'll see you later, Elle." A few moments after, he disappears the same way he appeared.

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