seekevolution | Summer

Summer

Though Mohinder didn't buy into the saying that there could be such a thing as love at first sight, the way that Simon Petrelli looked at Molly when they were first introduced made him reconsider and then immediately close his thoughts so Matt wouldn't worry. Mohinder gently pulled her long hair back from her shoulder so his hand could rest upon it, Molly in a bright red and yellow sundress,and said shoulder covered by a small yellow half jacket. They'd both been pleased to find it at Walmart on the drive up from Fort Lee to Maine, taking the long, scenic route even though Peter had offered them a chance to teleport.

Why teleport when they could have more time together and see the country? Molly needed a little break away from enclosed spaces and the forests along their mountain roads in New York and at the southern border of Canada was just the ticket.

Of course, there had been blighted areas, places where the virus had broken out, or worse, where communities had closed their doors and grown violent. They had just guided their black SUV around the problem areas and stuck to rural hotels on the interstate.

Now, standing in the foyer of what looked like another hotel and yet, knowing it was a family summer retreat, Mohinder could feel Molly yearning to go explore...and the eldest of Peter's nephews more than willing to guide her.

They were both the same age. They'd both been without playmates (what nearly twelve year old counts their brother as a playmate?) for a long while. Mrs. Petrelli, gracious despite her furtive glances at Matt, finally gave them the go head. "Show Molly to her room. Gently, Simon. She's not one of your trucks." Molly glanced back up at Mohinder and he nodded.

"I'll come find you shortly."

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Matt. Luke preferred that to 'dad' anyhow. His father was a piece of shit and if he knew where he was, he'd probably slowly cook him. The thought, unlike the others revolving around violence, did not make Luke smile. There was a trigger point there. Should Matt wish to find it, he would, easily.

Sometimes it was just better not to get involved with the minds of the criminally insane, however.

Luke finished his milk before looking up and shrugged. "We're both going to die," he said plainly enough. "Both of us. And slowly. I've never seen him do it, whatever it is that lets him do what we do, but I know it's a bloody mess. And I know he likes to play with us first."

Sylar already admitted that when he told Matt he loved to listen to Mohinder cry.

"But hey, if you're game, I'm game. I can keep your coffee warm too and we don't even have to wait in line for the microwave if we want those stupid burritos at gas stations."

Matt noticed, but didn't dig for any details. So there was something with the father. Honestly? It hardly surprised him. Seemed like everyone he'd run into since his whole mind thing had started had daddy issues, himself included.

And similarly, yeah no, what Luke was telling him about Sylar wasn't news. Matt's first touch with this crazy reality he found himself in was through him, through an impaled woman and a frozen man with his brain removed. Yeah, it was a bloody mess. But guess what? Matt had survived three brushes with that psychopath.

So fate or whatever seemed to be sticking up for him. At least for the moment.

"Right", he said after a moment, not bothering to tell Luke what he was thinking about. "Great. Look, I'm gonna make a call. Here's twenty. Make sure you pay."

He underlined that with a sharp look but no suggestion, wanting to see how Luke would perform given a task. That, and he still didn't want to rely too much on what he could do. Not after how easily it had turned so very damaging.

He hauled his cell phone out of his pocket and went outside, after some hesitation trying Mohinder's cell first. He got no answer, something that left him feeling a little more hollow and he leaned against the wall with a deep sigh, closing his eyes for a moment when he got to voicemail.

He didn't leave a message.

Instead he called Peter, or more accurately, the Petrelli home. Simon answered. He sounded sad.

"Hey, Simon. You wanna put your uncle on for me?"

Simon sighed but said his okay, and Matt waited for a few moments with a nervous energy drawing through him now when he had to focus, think. He pushed away from the wall and was pacing again.

"Peter", he said as soon as he heard the younger man's voice, barely waiting for him to actually greet him. "Peter, we've got a problem. Sylar's alive."

There's not complaining about how impossible it all was because Peter himself had died and come back. It seemed halfway to impossible, though, considering what he'd done to the body. No one ought to have been able to find it, but if Sylar's back, then they did. Peter closed his eyes for a second and pressed his fingers against the bridge of his nose.

"All right, so what do we do? Did you see him?"

He was trying to be as cool about this as he possibly could...which honestly wasn't a whole lot. Mohinder had taken Molly away just a few hours ago, just after Peter knew that Molly had spoken with Matt. They'd be nearly back to Jersey by now.

Though Peter didn't need a forwarding address to find them, thanks to Molly, he didn't want to. And he didn't want to call either. One could never be too careful. Not about this. He fumbled around for some paper and a pen to get down anything Matt might say or need him for.

Matt glanced back through the window at Luke, who was still there. "No, not me. I met this kid who says him and Sylar were buddy-buddy for a few days. Sounds insane, but either he's lying so well he believes it himself or he's telling the truth."

He sighed, shook himself out. He was grateful Peter was immediately with him on dealing with this - not that he'd expected anything else, because this was Sylar, for fuck's sake - but after what had happened there was the sense of doubt that Peter would choose Mohinder's side over Matt's. But Matt found himself falling back into the familiar rapport from New York all too easily when he said his piece.

"I don't know what's the best way to handle this, I mean- kid says he knows where he was headed but not where he is anymore. He's ... got a few screws loose, but says he'll help out if I keep him fed."

He scrubbed his hand over his face, then pushed it through his hair. "Honestly? I just want to hunt the son of a bitch down and make sure he stays dead this time, but I'm gonna need your help."

A few months ago he probably wold have blamed Peter more for his apparent failure than he'd have liked, but a lot had happened since Peter had lost his brother. To both of them.

"Everyone's safe here. The kids are starting school and my mom hasn't been trying to keep me away from or push me towards anything so I don't think she's had any dreams about it." And that was fortunate. Peter loved his mother, but she always tried to undermine him and even if she thought she knew best, he'd realized not too long ago that she really didn't.

Sitting on the edge of the edge of the counter, glass in hand but the milk already long forgotten, Peter tried to think of what he could do from here.

The answer? Nothing.

"Let me get the atlas and I'll come to you." What were the chances that some kid and Matt met up and the kid just happened to know what Sylar could do?

On the other end of the line he heard a banging sound. Luke was barging into the phone booth with Matt in it, handing over change.

"Left three bucks for tip. Who're you talking to?"

Peter stayed silent to let Matt have that other conversation if he wanted to.

"Don't tell me, you're fucking me over already!?" the kid shouted, eyes wide and scared.

Matt rolled his eyes and covered the phone with one hand when he turned towards Luke. On finding him looking genuinely upset, though, he paused for a moment, just looking at him. That was unexpected. But then again, maybe less than he'd figured.

"I'm not fucking over anybody but Sylar, so you can calm down, okay? But you said yourself it's not gonna be easy, so we need backup. Yeah?" He paused for a moment, making sure Luke was listening to him. "I'm talking to a friend. He'll help me out, which means you'll be helping him out. If that's gonna be a problem, you better tell me now."

There weren't any other terms involved, as far as Matt was concerned. They needed a hand, Peter was an excellent hand, and Luke could honestly take it or leave it; what Matt needed from him he could likely take from his head before he left, if it came to that. But if Luke wanted to stick around (and as little as Matt liked the prospect of what, taking care of him?, he knew it'd be better for most people if he did), he also needed to figure that he couldn't decide on all the rules.

The edges of the phone in Matt's hand felt warm. Softer than before. The pages of the phone book were curling. It was more humid inside of the booth for a split second before Matt talked Luke down, inadvertantly. Lowering his eyes and looking like he felt foolish, Luke shrugged his shoulders. "Whatever," he muttered and stepped back out onto the street, his eyes scanning the road from north to south.

Nothing was out of the ordinary. The sun had set but the colors in the sky were still violet and orange. He didn't get that. Yeah, it all had to do with science and perception and the cones or some shit in your eye but he still didn't really get it.

Picking at his sleeves, he let Matt finish his conversation.

"Everything okay over there?" Peter asked cautiously. "I'm just going to say goodbye to mom and Heidi and the kids, all right? Give me five minutes." Peter was already making a list of the things he'd need.

Matt took a look at the phone - still functioning, yeah, but definitely a little deformed around the edges. If it hadn't been clear enough before, this was yet another indication that Luke could cause damage if he wanted. He sighed, and pressed it to his hear again.

"Yeah, it's fine. I think he's got some abandonment thing", Matt remarked fairly dryly, shooting Luke another look as he was surveying the sky. It was a little edgier than it had to be, but Peter's voicing that he was going to say goodbye to his family made Matt miss his own even more. He was quiet for a moment, then added in a quieter tone, "see you in a few."

Hanging up, he joined Luke and the distant buzz and crackling in his mind, not saying anything to him but crossing his arms and standing to wait.

"So. Like...what's your friend like? Does he do what you do? Is that like masturbation?" He offered Matt a smile at that, but Luke didn't really have a pleasant smile. He didn't know how to make it hit his eyes and it always gave him a sort of surreal, demonic quality to his face.

When Matt didn't answer right away, Luke shrugged.

"Oh-kay," he dragged out and started towards the parking lot. "So...which car is yours? I'm going to guess that stupid yellow one there...or that black SUV." He sounded a little nervous again, but he clipped it off with a smirk. Black vans gave him nightmares still. He had no idea what had been planned for him when they took him...and he didn't actually want to know either. Sylar saved him from that fate.

He was still thinking that and waiting for Matt to answer when someone called Matt's name from behind them. Luke turned. There'd been no one there a moment ago. How could there be now?

Yeah, Luke really didn't have the whole social boundaries-thing down. But Matt was already finding himself desentisized towards it and although he set his jaw about it, he ignored it easily enough.

And tough luck, Luke, the car in question was red and parked right behind the black one, something Matt was about to reluctantly answer but was still going to when Peter showed up. Which, thank god, really. A familiar face was definitely a relief.

"Hey, Peter", he said. He didn't exactly approach - last time he'd seen him had been rough and even before that things had grown a little strained between them because of ... the whole thing with Mohinder, really - but he was still glad to see him.

Peter inclined his head towards Luke. "This is him?"

Matt nodded, looking at him too. "Yeah, that's Luke."

"Uh..dudes? No offense but 'Luke' is right fucking here," he remarked, arms loose at his sides for a moment before he slid one hand into his pocket the way that Matt sometimes stood. He did it unconsciously, copycatting his new 'Sylar' without meaning to. "Luke Campbell. Who the fuck are you?"

Charming. Peter offered his smile even if Luke seemed to bristle like an over protective dog. "Peter Petrelli."

Now that made Luke's head tilt. "Petrelli? Like that guy on the TV? The one with that virus? Shit man. You're not going to get us all killed are you?"

Peter repeated the thought to Matt, his face flattening. "Luckily, for your sake, no. You know Sylar?"

Now Luke relaxed. "Knew. Yeah, sorta. I think he was using me as like...emergency rations. Guess I turned his stomach or some shit."

"No offense, but show some respect", Matt said irritably. Going to get us all killed? If Luke had had any idea what him and Peter had gone through to try to prevent people from dying, to try to keep it contained in Odessa and then to protect people in New York after that had failed ... it wasn't fair to Peter. And it wasn't fair to Nathan, either.

The one with that virus? Yeah, fuck that. Nathan had been a friend and an ally and deserved more than that.

He went past them to get the roadmap from the car, then spread it out on the hood of it. Another trio roadtrip, like so many others in his life. Joy. They had a habit of not ending particularly well, had they? Aside some with Molly and Mohinder. But that was still up in the air.

"Okay, Luke." Both to draw his attention and to give him some. Clearly he wanted and needed to be seen. Fine, Matt could see him. He angled the map at him. "We want to know when and where you met him. Especially when", he added, glancing at Peter.

It was a worrying prospect, knowing Sylar was out there, but not what he'd managed to do during that time.

Luke was more than willing to talk. In fact, that was really all he wanted, Matt had been right about that. His fingers moved across the map, starting in Newark, New Jersey. He did pepper some of the story with lies, like how his mother beat him and how he was a recovering drug addict, but it was easier to overlook them then to point out that he knew. Luke seemed to find it more interesting to be caught than not to.

In fact, it kept getting him sidetracked.

The heart of the matter was, however, that not long after the cities ended their quarentines, Sylar had come looking for his father. Luke more or less accidentally saved him and they headed out on the road together to find Sansom Gray.

Right up until Sylar had a little breakdown of sorts and just left Luke where he was, in a diner that had not been used in at least a decade. "Stupid fucking toy car. Evidently it's like his kryptonite," Luke muttered.

Peter, ever the comic geek, had to speak up. "Kryptonite took away Superman's powers," he pointed out.

Luke gave him a once over and rolled his eyes. "Yeah well what the fuck ever."

There was some bickering back and forth, of course. It was difficult to not clash with Luke just from the way he talked and acted, but both Peter and Matt gave him the space to tell his story, even if it was with some mental commentary.

And then there was that Kryptonite comment, and Matt blinked up at the two of them, mind reeling.

Take away powers. There was at least one person who could do that.

Ignoring Luke for a moment, he turned to Peter, slightly urgent in his tone.

"The Haitian", he said, fingers splayed against the map to keep it in place. "If you could get his power ..."

"I'd have to find him first," Peter said, though a small smirk came to him. "Which won't be a problem, thanks to your daughter."

Luke snorted and arched an eyebrow. "You have a fucking daughter..?" Well that was interesting. "So like... This shit runs in families? My mom couldn't do a damn thing but complain. I bet my dad-- I wonder if that bastard made it."

For all that Luke protested, he did actually care. More about his father than his mother.

"Well fine. I'm in. I'll help you find this dude and then we'll find Sylar."

Peter didn't look so certain. Especially because he didn't like the vibes this kid gave off.

Matt could understand that. Luke was ... definitely a special case. In truth, they likely didn't need him anymore now when they'd gotten all the information they needed out of him; Peter's amount of powers could carry them the rest of the way in dealing with Sylar. But Matt was unwilling to leave Luke alone, so it was with some reluctance he levelled the thought at Peter; we'll keep an eye on him.

"It's genetic somehow", he said distractedly to the kid, still looking at Peter for the most part, not at all interested in elaborating on Molly. He tilted his head up slightly, thinking. "You should keep an eye out. He still works for the Company, right? We can't trust them."

Even if he often had his own agenda, from what Matt had understood from both Peter and Mohinder, he still had issues trusting anyone affiliated with the Company name.

"I should do this alone," Peter said. With just Mart, teleporting in and out would be no big deal once he sat down to plot out on a map where the Haitian was. But for two co-pilots, one of whom was a loud mouthed brat who seemed to have a love-hate relationship with Sylar, he didn't want to risk it. "I don't even know if I can copy his power--"

"You copy powers?! Holy shit, do mine!"

Peter mostly just ignored him, though there was a growing lack of ease in this situation with the teenager. "Maybe later," he said, trying to be a little less than rude. "But he might nullify my ability the moment I get close."

Matt shot Luke a withering look, because yeah, he completely agreed with Peter that this was an uneasy situation. But again: didn't feel at all like he could cut Luke off wihout risking some serious damage done to ... someone. Anyone, honestly. With the kid's idolization of Sylar it was something he wanted to do even less.

No, he wasn't quite noticing that Luke was starting to imprint on him.

"I guess you can't just ask for it", Matt said dryly, looking back to Peter. "But they want Sylar gone almost as much as we do."

He hesitated for a moment, not quite liking the prospect of Peter going in on his own. If anything happened it wasn't like he'd be able to help. But at the same time, Peter was the one who would be most likely to manage.

"Just be sure to get out if anything looks wrong."

"He can just absorb powers? Talk about getting the bottom of the dung heap, huh, Matt?" Luke asked in a sort of sing songy attempt to be ingratiating. Peter had just gone off and said he should return within the hour, but that left Matt to deal with this new situation, one who kept tilting his head just as he was. "So...that's just like Sylar. Only without the killing."

Which really did make him wonder if Sylar had to kill people to take their powers or if he could be like this guy. It seemed to him that if your ability was to absorb stuff from other people, that could only happen one way.

Luke had never been to biology class. Mohinder would likely have laughed and told him that butterflies and birds did not evolve together but still had adapted more or less the same mechanic to allow them to fly, even if one was covered in scales and the other flesh.

Perhaps Matt shouldn't think about Mohinder, though. Or how hurt he'd been when he more or less told Matt to leave.

Matt kept his temper in check very admirably - or else he was already falling into resignation when it came to a lot of Luke's antics and commentary. "He's nothing like Sylar", he defended his friend immediately, bristling slightly all the same. "Sylar's a nutcase who kills people for the hell of it." He fixed a pointed look at Luke from the back of the car, where he was looking through the trunk to see if there was anything in particular they were missing or that could be of use. "Remember that. Alright?"

He really wanted to keep Luke's idolization of Sylar to a minimum. He still didn't understand it, and he sure as hell didn't like it, but he knew he'd only really get Luke to drop it if he kept reinforcing. Or maybe it was a lead-by-example sort of thing. Actually scratch that, he really didn't know shit about how to make it stick to the kid's head, but he'd try.

That's who he was.

He scrubbed a hand over his face briefly, managing quite admirably to also not think too much of Mohinder. There was something to be done here. He could focus on that.

"Yeah but we're all a little crazy. I mean, until something pushes us over board and then we're like...seriously crazy, right? So this shit with Sylar's dad abandoning him? That was like the tipping point." Luke picked at the wax in one of his ears and flicked it away. Most teenagers fell into two categories. Ones that cared how they were perceived and ones who didn't. Luke didn't even seem like he showered every day but the kid was homeless too.

Where was he suppose to shower if it wasn't a sink in a rest stop between doing things he both delighted in (like hurting people) and wanted to scrub his mind clean from (like what he offered Matt for the price of a meal).

"Your friend is probably one daddy issue or spurned girlfriend away from total Crazytown, USA." Luke understood the human condition just a little too well. He wasn't loved as a kid, he didn't grow up relying on anyone other than himself, and he did see the depths of humanity in it's cesspool.

The trouble was that he didn't see the good in it either.

"Hey, you got a phone?" A scan of his mind would reveal the kid to be thinking about his mom... And already knowing that she wouldn't pick up, he still wanted to call her.

Yeah, that was surprisingly insightful, Matt supposed. But that didn't mean he was going to buy it, still. Maury left him and Matt hadn't followed in his footsteps, and Peter had been through all kinds of crap without having turned vindictive - even when he'd ultimately helped Adam release the Shanti virus, he was doing so thinking Adam was going to destroy it.

Sylar might have a whole lot of reasons for turning out the way he did but there were no excuses in the world for what he had done. Besides, Matt had been in his head. There was something fundamentally wrong there that went beyond normal instability.

So Matt scowled as he listened, but fell into cop mode easily enough to ask, "Yeah? Think you'll hit your tipping point?"

It was an opportunity to try to get something out of him. Not that that was too difficult in general, he evidently liked talking - no, it was about the substance.

Matt was surprised to hear him ask for a phone, though. And especially the intent behind it. Closing the trunk, he looked at Luke somewhat cautiously, but did toss him the phone. "Knock yourself out."

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Summer

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Yep. Passed out. Sorry about that.

no worries. c:

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