4

Kyoto, Japan, 1671…

Hiro Nakamura looked at his surroundings with peculiar interest. He was in a lush field of green grass. There was dew all over the ground and the air felt cool and refreshing. There was a calm and gentle breeze which seemed to tease him. Such were the wonders of nature. Hiro had no idea where he was. The last thing he remembered was the battle with…Sylar!

Memories flooded back into Hiro’s mind. He remembered dealing a mortal wound to Sylar, stabbing him in the stomach with his sword. Sylar retaliated within seconds and Hiro had teleported himself however, he had not expected to appear somewhere totally different.

Suddenly, shouts attracted Hiro’s attention,

3

IN THE HOSPITAL…

It was already night and it was raining heavily. The weather couldn’t have been worse. House looked at it for a while, then opened the sliding door to visit his patient, Nathan Petrelli for the first time. The congressman was awake and he looked at House. No one could tell what emotions Nathan was feeling behind his disfiguration. House took a seat.

“So, who did this to you?” House asked.

“…Pete…” Nathan replied weakly.

“Pee? You already are peeing! It’s going through the tube! Who was it?”

“…Peter… my brother…”

“He did this to you?” House frowned. “Wow. He’s better than I am.”

“H-he…didn’t mean…it…”

"Well, that’s a bit much of an accident.”

Nathan opened his mouth to try to say something. He choked up, not because he was going to cry, but he could not breathe. His back started arching and felt extreme shocks through his body. It was worse than the burn itself.

House paged the other doctors.

“Nurse! Get in here! We have a respiratory attack!” House shouted. “As well as something else worse…”

He watched the nurses give Nathan Petrelli the gas while Chase, Cameron and Foreman rushed in.

“BP’s dropping!” Foreman said.

Nathan Petrelli was still struggling and still receiving painful shocks. In less than a minute, he passed out.

~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~

"Miller Fisher Syndrome," said Chase.

"Explains the shocks, but not the low white count, " Cameron said.

"Well, he's had a radiation. That could've caused the low white count," Foreman said his piece.

"But it wouldn't have-" Cameron said.

"It's bizarre," It was House. "I like bizarre. Nothing tells us anything."

"His immune system is down, so it could be an infection" Chase said.

"An infection he simply contracted here all of a sudden?" Foreman asked.

"Do an M.R.I," House said.

"But we did one and it was clean."

"Do it again. It won't be good news." House popped a Vicodin.

~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~

IN THE COMPANY LAB...

Elle came in through the door and it was obvious she was unhappy and had stopped being clingy to Peter. She simply put the cup of pills on the table and turned to leave. Peter, on the other hand, was sitting on the bed.

"Not going to give me a little shock anymore?" Peter asked.

"Why should I?" Elle seemed irritated.

"Well, I guess I'm starting to like it."

She moved closer and Peter pulled her to the bed. He kissed her. She shocked her with the lips and it hurt. But she seemed happier. She moved closer for more, but Peter stood up and popped the pills into his mouth and passed the cup back to Elle. She smiled and walked out of the room.

Peter spit out the pills and threw them into the bin.

"Pretty little thing, eh?" said his nameless neighbour.

"It's been two weeks. I should have my abilities back now," Peter said.

"Good. Try them," the voice said behind the walls.

Peter gathered his energy and touched the walls. It didn't seem to be working but he persisted and tried harder. It was only a lack of practice as he finally put his hand through the wall and then walked right through it to the other side.

"It's good to finally meet you," Peter said. " I'm Peter."

"Adam. Adam Monroe," the blond Englishman shook hands with Peter. "Ready to save the world?"

Peter nodded and held Adam as the walked through the walls out of the cage they were in.

~Richie.

2

The girl was cute. And blond. And annoying. She sat on the sofa with Peter Petrelli, playing with his hair and his ears, like he was a new toy. Then it started to hurt, as she manipulated electricity and shocked Peter. And she enjoyed it.

"You'll get used to it, and then start to like it," said the girl.

I'd strangle her if only her father wasn't sitting on the other side of the room, Peter thought.

Her big, almost balding father, Bob Bishop started talking. Apparently the cute girl's name was Elle. He told Peter about his research, about keeping the powers under control, about not hurting the ones you love, so on and so forth. It also happened that Peter's power was already "under control". Peter tried to moving the glass with touching it. It didn't work anymore. Bob continued on more boring explanation as to why.

Bob and Elle then brought Peter to Bob's lab. Finally, some movement, less talk. Bob told him he would recover there and they would "help" him to stop hurting people. Elle finally had to leave Peter alone, as they went out and locked him in the room.

"Hey there, roommate," came a voice.

"Who said that?" Peter said, almost scared and nervous.

"I did."

~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~

"So, what does this have to do with me?"

Wilson twitched his eyebrow at his odd, limping friend.

"Everything!" said House. "You're the Oncology Boy Wonder! You love cancer! Tell me what radiation does with it."

"Well, sometimes radiation cures cancer-"

"-Yes yes, I went to medical school too. Tell me about the damages."

"I was getting to it. Radiation mutates cells. If it's at a degree where it does destroy the cancer cells, it mutates them, causing weird symtoms and ugly things."

"And they die anyway."

"Yes."

~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~

"M.R.I. showed us nothing," said Foreman.

House took the scan and clipped it on the light board. He squinted his eyes at it.

"Nothing, or too small to tell?" questioned House.

Chase, Foreman and Cameron went closer and stared at it.

"Nothing," said Cameron

"Or it could just be a slight concussion from a fall. Nothing serious," said Chase.

House thought for a while. Who could ever know what he was thinking? His mind was complicated. He could even spot the slightest deficiency on a result and turn it into a sympton. The crew was waiting for House to mention something serious that they missed.

"Maybe you're right, Dr Chase!" House's eyes widened. "Get a neurosurgeon to remove the bloodclot. Meanwhile, we're going hunting for cancer cells."

~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~

IN THE COMPANY LAB...

"Who are you?" Peter said to the voice behind the walls.

"I've been locked here, like you," the voice said. "They say they're helping you. But look around you! It's a prison, and you're locked in."

"No! They're here to help us! I don't want to hurt people anymore!"

"Try getting out then."

The door opened. But it wasn't opened by Peter. It was Elle on her daily routine to give Peter his medicine and give him a little electric shock for kicks. She flirted with him as usual and he continued to show no signs of interest. He asked her if he could get out.

"No, I'm sorry. It's just not going to work that way. You just have to be a good boy and stay here until you're all better."

Peter pushed it and told her he wasn't in the mood for a sadistic lighting and accused her of wanted control. Elle got mad. It seemed like he hit the right spot.

"Right. You're right. I am a sociopath. I burned down my grandmother's house when I was six, caused a multi-county blackout in Ohio when I was 8, I spent my ninth birthday in a glass room with an IV of lithium in my arm, and lived in this building we're standing in now for sixteen years after being diagnosed a sociopath with paranoid delusions, I've never beenon a roller-coaster, swimming or a date."

Elle slammed the door and left.

~ Richie.

1

AT KIRBY PLAZA...

Radiation. That was what was causing Peter Petrelli to be about to blow up and destroy the world. He was glowing like a big orange firefly in the night. Nathan Petrelli looked at his brother with a hint of fear in his eyes.

“I’ll fly,” Nathan said.

Nathan carried his brother, who was still glowing like some led light, into the sky. In mid air, Peter started burning from the radiation and Nathan was affected by it too. It was as if their skin was on fire, even though they were not literally a fire ball, it certainly felt so.

“Go, Nathan!” Peter shouted.

They argued for a while about why Nathan should let him go and why he doesn’t want to. However, Nathan lost the debate to his brother whose face was already swelling up.

Stupid little brother, Nathan thought.

Stubborn older brother, Peter thought.

Nathan let go, and tried to fly himself back to ground, but he was already too weak from the burn of radiation. His face looked swollen too and badly burnt. A gigantic blast, bigger than the atomic bomb on Japan, was then heard and seen. It was a bigger mushroom anyway. Yet in no time, Peter regenerated from the blast and appeared right in front of his brother’s eyes. It was now Peter’s turn to carry and fly his brother back down to safety.

Peter left his brother down and flew away.

~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~

IN THE HOSPITAL…

Angela Petrelli sat by the side of Nathan’s bed. She saw her once handsome, charming politician son, who was now looking like something more of an It.

"... Pete..." Nathan whispered, using much of his strength.

"He's missing. He saved you..."

Nathan touched the side of his own face. He was scared. But he pushed the button to control the bed.

"Don't, Nathan!" his mother said.

Nathan did get up anyway, and stared at his disfigured self in the mirror. He looked like a hairless Wookie.

Oh my fucking god..., he cursed in his head.

~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~

"I want in."

Cuddy looked up at House.

"You only want in because of the excessive amount of radiation that came from nowhere."

"No. I want in because the patient is extrememly handsome."

Cuddy threw the file at House.

"Fine. Figure it out."

"Yes!" House whispered as he turned around and left.

~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~

"Ok. Congressman. Forty-Two. Burned from excessive radiation. Gamma radiation, " House said. "Apart from not having much skin left, what else could he be having?"

"He could have a loss of leucocytes," Chase said.

"His bone marrow could be nearly or completely destroyed, or-," Cameron said.

"- Or Delirium," Foreman interrupted.

"Put him on steroids for the moment and give him a M.R.I. We're with the neurologist here. Check for any brain damages...," said House.

The team left the room. House stood where he was, leaning on his cane and staring at the whiteboard.

~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~+~

~Richie.