Part Six - Influence - Part Five

DECEMBER 12, 2007

CENTRAL PARK, NEW YORK

"We were there to provide protection. Help folks get unstuck and return to a normal life. If it ain't our doing then someone else will make it so we're…Obsolete. Our purpose was to make it so the folks don't need us."

A television is switched on with Claire Bennet's face plastered on the screen. A sub-title flashes screen, "Man arrested identified as Samuel Sullivan, owner of the carnival."

[Volume Six "Brave New World"]

"Coyote Sands. Primatech. Pinehearst. Building 26. The Carnival. They meddled with the world. But in a way, I have to thank them. They made perfect strangers work together for a common cause."

Books, files, papers, and maps are scattered on the floor and furniture. Some that can be made out are a headline about a town falling into a massive sink hole. Another print out shows an aerial view of the Carnival. A Primatech logo and photo of Amanda Strazzulla is visible on a third.

[Volume 5]

"I hope it was a good situation while it lasted."

Trevor Tanaka is standing amid the papers in a room in the Sherry-Netherland hotel, overlooking Central Park. He has a five days' worth of facial hair. In the background outside the window, the Sullivan Bros. Carnival lights up the park but more so police lights and flashes of reporters now. Despite the clutter of work, the room is spacious and evokes a timeless European luxury.

Trevor - "Claire Bennet, did you just save the world? Or doom it further?"

Trevor turns off the television. He stares into the blank screen.

Trevor - "She'll be a shiny new toy to them. At first. Then we go from Astro Boy to Frankenstein in a blink of the eye."

[Volume 2 "The Line"]

DECEMBER 2, 2007

DESOLATION CANYON, UTAH

James and Trevor teleport in with the group of posthumans from last chapter; Darren Summers, Ilja Vanderslagmolen, Daniel Stehlik, Maxxine Falcone, Amber Reed, Jennifer McAllister, Morgan Harvey, Chuck Cox, Erika Stevens, and Brian Cain. James walks up to Seal, Marc, Sparkplug, and Slipshod. Sparkplug says something to him. James nods and teleports away. Seal walks up to Trevor. Trevor seems distracted. He holds up his hand. Seal shakes it.

Trevor - "Very canyon-y."

Seal - "They call it Desolation Canyon."

Trevor - "Great place to boost morale."

Seal - "I thought you'd get a kick out of it."

Trevor - "I'd have taken Tanya and Eloise out here for a vacation."

Seal - "You and vacations?"

Trevor unbuttons his trench coat.

James reappears in the background with more people. Several seconds later, Clara does, too. Everyone is now present.

Seal - "The greater a man's talents, the greater his power to lead astray. It is better that one should suffer than that many should be corrupted."

[Brave New World, Aldous Huxley]

Seal holds out Trevor's briefcase and rips out the secret compartment. The two red files tumble out. Murmurs buzz around the crowd.

Seal - "Good things can't last. We were supposed to protect each other. Now, we're doing things behind each other's backs. Sending out secret messages. Going on undercover missions. That's not us. We don't get each other killed."

Some agreement and confusion circulate among the crowd. Seal takes it in and tries to calm everyone down. Trevor stays where is and doesn't flinch. Sparkplug and Clara half-glance at Trevor.

Seal - "I think it's still worthwhile to protect each other, but in smaller groups and we can still stay in contact with each other."

"Is he disbanding the faction?"

"No way!"

"I think's it's the right thing to do."

"This is total bull-"

"I bet it's all Trevor's fault."

Seal - "No, this is all on me. I'm your leader, I should have been the one to make the hard decisions but I put too much weight on you all. I'm sorry. I let everyone down."

There is silence. Trevor walks forward. Seal looks at him.

Trevor - "You're not Seal."

"What?!"

"Is he nuts?!"

"Of course, that's him!!"

Without warning, Trevor pulls out his gun and shoots Seal in the head. Seal falls over, instantly dead.

"I knew it, he's a double agent!"

"Get him!!"

Trevor - "He's not Seal. He was a shape shifter."

"But look, it's still Seal!"

Trevor - "Shape shifters manipulate their DNA permanently. They don't just shift back to their original appearance when they die. You were all subjected to bad writing in the 90's."

"Well prove it."

Trevor - "Have you seen the final season of Highlander?"

"Get him!!"

Trevor - "Seal walks with his right shoulder slightly forward from his left and walks at a two degree slouch. He walked straight. He shaked my hand. I never shake anyone's hand. I told Seal my daughter's name would have been Elisha if she was born. He didn't correct me when I called her Eloise. Seal quotes television. He quoted literature. Seal's eyes are brown. His were blue."

The crowd calms down a little. But things are still tense.

"How're you going to find Seal?"

"Yeah, you just killed our only lead!!"

Trevor - "Among this crowd of 200 posthumans, there has to be a clairvoyant. A locator? Really? None? Look at the soles of his shoes. This dirt caked in isn't indicative of Utah. Ultisols are the dominant soils in the American South, where the Cecil series is most famous, southeastern China, southeast Asia and some other subtropical and tropical areas. Their northern limit, except fossil soils, is very sharply defined in North America by the limits of maximum glaciation during the Pleistocene because Ultisols typically take hundreds of thousands of years to form - far longer than the length of an interglacial period today."

Silence.

Trevor - "The dirt has faint smell of poultry, swine, peanuts, and cattle. Three main staples of North Carolina and Georgia, where red clay soil is found. Peanuts are strictly from Georgia."

Fake Seal's body makes a sound.

Trevor - "Excuse me."

Trevor delivers his signature second shot.

Trevor - "So…who's up for a field trip?"

UNDAUNTED - in Heroes title font - graces across the sky.

INFLUENCE - PART FIVE: FEELING- in Heroes title font - pasted on the red clay soil

DECEMBER 12, 2007

SAVANNAH, GEORGIA

Close up on Seal, presumably, with a bag over his head, tied up on a chair. He hears two people talking.

"They're coming."

Seal exhales.

HEROES theme plays as montage sequence begins. The electricity in the building begins to dimmers. Outside, Trevor is shooting. The camera is at a slower speed. Bullets rip into other posthumans. Trevor turns and throws a knife into another's head off-screen. Back in the building, lightning streams out of the light bulbs and attacks the two guards. Sparkplug appears and unmasks Seal. He quickly works to untie him. Azuteor is surrounded on all sides. He easily flips them all into the distance with his gravity repulsion. Sparkplug and Seal burst out the door. Trevor has his cellphone to his ear, kneeling at the building's base. Clara appears. Trevor clicks a device then everyone teleports away. Ten seconds later, the building explodes.

DESOLATION CANYON, UTAH

FIVE MINUTES, 29 SECONDS LATER

Seal - "Thanks. So who were those guys?"

Seal drinks bottled water. Trevor replaces his gun's clip. Fake Seal's body is a short distance away from them.

Trevor - "Who cares? It's a new enemy every week."

[HSG]

Seal - "So that was me, huh?"

Trevor - "Yep."

Seal - "How'd you know it wasn't me?"

Trevor - "I had a feeling. I'd have felt really stupid if I were wrong."

Seal chuckles.

DECEMBER 12, 2007

CENTRAL PARK, NEW YORK

Trevor is finishing shaving in the bathroom. He applies aftershave. Unknown time passes. He walks out in with a dress shirt, tie, and slacks on. Trevor stands in front of a full body mirror and finishes his tie. He looks down at his cufflinks to make sure they are straight. Trevor looks over to a night stand were a holster and his gun is waiting. He puts it on then his suit jacket hanging. He walks over to his coat hanger and puts on a black trench coat and black fedora. With the camera now pointed at his back. Trevor exhales then turns around. The camera, from his point of view, sees the room, now completely cleaned up of his research and/or clutter. Trevor bends at the knees and picks up a briefcase. He switches off the light and leaves.

DECEMBER 13, 2007

AOYAMA, JAPAN

Trevor - "This is the way it all ends, not with a bang, not with some casual incident, but in sustained reflection."

[George Santayana, on the Divine Comedy]

The camera zooms out. Trevor is talking to the headstone of his fiancée, Tanya, in the Aoyama Cemetery. He bends down and touches it. Trevor walks away, disappearing under the camera. The camera slowly, steadily, zooms in on the grave until the characters are legible. Then it stares down. Trevor's gun is resting on her headstone.

THE BEGINNING