Heroes: Godsend

by Adam Sklar

CHAPTER EIGHT: JUST LIKE OLD TIMES

  “I’d had a few calls from Angela Petrelli, she can dream of the future. She kept telling me about a threat called The Nomad, that he would bring about a world in which we have no control of ourselves. I dismissed it as nothing more than an onset of severe paranoia after the Sullivan Incident. She was having dreams left, right, and centre. I didn’t take this one seriously at first. I was dealing with the fallout from the Sullivan Incident and I had to focus on that. It wasn’t until she told me that it didn’t matter what this Nomad would do, he’d bring about the end of the world anyway. that’s when I knew I had to listen.” Noah Bennet recalls his conversation with Angela Petrelli.

  “Angela.” Noah Bennet calls out.

  “Noah, thank you for coming.” Angela expresses her appreciation.

  “I’m sorry I didn’t come before.” Noah Bennet apologises.

  “You had your own issues to deal with, Noah. You had to sort Claire out, you have a lot of your own problems, I understand.” Angela explains.

  “Why do you want my help? I thought I’d be the last person you’d want any help from.” Noah Bennet stammers in confusion.

  “Somebody has broken the rules, Noah. Somebody broke the rules, there exists a boy in this world who was never born. A boy of such great power, but also of such great goodness.” Angela mutters.

  “A boy who was never born? What do you mean?” Noah Bennet asks for clarification.

  “It wasn’t until my last dream that I could truly confirm it. Parallel universes exist, Noah. There is a man who can jump into other universes where things are very similar, or very different. I don’t know this man’s name, but I know him only as The Nomad. He called himself this to remind himself of his constant travels to and from other universes.” Angela explains calmly.

  “I suppose after everything we’ve seen, the idea of parallel universes shouldn’t be too hard to believe. Who is this boy?” Noah Bennet responds, accepting the existence of parallel universes immediately.

  “He shares your name, Noah. He is Sylar’s son, but not our Sylar, one from another universe. The Nomad went into a parallel universe and took him from his parents and probably killed them. He’s called Noah Gray. I believe Elle Bishop is the mother. There’s a reason for all of this, The Nomad is planning something big and all I know is that it ends with the extinction of the human race.” Angela reveals. Noah rests his hand on his face, desperately trying to make sense of the situation.

  “Why this boy? Why does The Nomad need him?” Noah Bennet questions Angela.

  “My dreams were blurrier and hazier than ever when it concerned events on the other side, but after a few of them, I was able to piece the puzzle together. The Company thrived on the other side. Arthur and Maury, well, their alternate selves created something called The First Machine, The Nomad calls it The Godsend Device. An object so powerful it can grant anybody the abilities they desire. Everybody who tried to use it perished on the spot. You see, they killed and turned another version of Noah Gray into a weapon by harnessing his powers into this artificial stone. When they realised it couldn’t work without Noah, they reprogrammed the device to only work with his genetic fingerprint so nobody else would die from touching it. All I know is that The Nomad has the Godsend Device and another version of Noah Gray too. I need you to save him. He was raised in isolation, he’s never known the world like you and I do, he was a prisoner, a child forced to grow up thinking the outside world was a dangerous hive of villains and killers. He’s going to kill a lot of people, because of The Nomad. He was a scared little boy who is going to slowly learn that his step-father was a liar. You can change that, you can help him.” Angela encourages Noah Bennet.

  “Don’t you want somebody like Peter to help? Why me?” Noah Bennet wonders.

  “It has to be you, Noah. You have to be the one to encourage the boy, to make him see things for what they truly are, to give him hope that the majority of people in the world are truly good, because right now he thinks that everybody else is bad. I’ve asked for somebody else to help you too.” Angela explains, as she calls out to Hiro.

  “Noah.” Hiro smiles, reaching out to shake Noah Bennet’s hand.

  “Hiro, it’s so good to see you.” Noah Bennet exclaims whilst shaking Hiro’s hand.

  “I didn’t just want Hiro to help get you there, I also need him to help Noah too. I saw you both help him in my dreams, so it has to be you two.” Angela explains further.

  “Can we go back and prevent The Nomad from ever taking Noah in the first place?” Noah Bennet suggests.

  “Absolutely not, Noah. The Nomad has screwed with time and space more than anybody I’ve ever known, I don’t know what the consequences are to altering such a pivotal event any further. The Nomad is far too powerful for any of us to stop, he can control minds and reflect any damage inflicted upon him. I believe he can also rapidly predict all possible consequences of his actions in order to decide the best possible approach. If he weren’t so powerful, you could shoot him in the head, but he’d see it coming from a mile away and he’d make you shoot yourself first. Your job is to save Noah Gray and to destroy The Godsend Device, then we’ll work out how to secure The Nomad.” Angela answers abruptly.

  “So, this man ends the world?” Noah Bennet asks quietly.

  “Not to begin with. I saw him making Noah use the Godsend Device so that The Nomad could enhance his powers to have such an enormous reach that it would affect the entire world. Through Noah, he granted himself a power that allowed him to alter the very genetic structure of human beings so that they would become peaceful entities. No more wars, no more fighting.” Angela answers.

  “That doesn’t sound so bad.” Hiro remarks.

  “Oh it gets worse, Hiro. He forces his pre-conceived idea of utopia upon the world, ridding us all of our own free will. He begins to control the world, and every single individual within it. As far as I could tell, it went well for just over a couple of years, then he became so disgusted with humanity that he…” Angela gasps worriedly.

  “Angela?” Noah Bennet comforts her by placing his hand gently onto her shoulder.

  “This is the worst thing I’ve ever seen, Noah.” Angela shudders.

  “What did the man do?” Hiro asks calmly.

  “He forced everybody to kill themselves at the same time. Billions of us dead in less than two minutes. Within five minutes, he was one of very few left.” Angela hesitantly answered.

  “Then we need to stop him.” Noah Bennet nods, firmly grasping Angela’s shoulder to reassure her.

  “You save Noah Gray, you save humanity. Find a way to get to him safely, and get The Godsend Device together.” Angela instructs.

  “I’ll keep you updated, Angela. Where do we start?” Noah Bennet wonders.

  “The Nomad lives in a bunker in England, not far from a place called Glasshearst, chances are Noah isn’t that far away. Take care, both of you. And Noah? Thank you.” Angela concludes, as Hiro places his hand onto Noah Bennet and teleports them away. Angela nervously sits down on a bench and tries to stop her hands from shaking. Hiro teleports them both into The Nomad’s bunker, where The Nomad is sitting impatiently on a chair with his hands on his legs. This ominous and cunning figure has a svelte appearance with neck-length hair as he dons a dark suit.

  “I take it you were expecting us.” Noah Bennet mutters wittily.

  “Hmm, two and a half minutes late. You see, despite all the planning I’ve done, I’ve discovered that the only method to resolve things with you two is through the simple usage of words. I kill either of you, and there’s no way I can stop the hellfire that will rain down upon me.” The Nomad murmurs whilst tapping his fingers on his legs.

  “I don’t think you can talk your way out of this.” Noah Bennet stares quizzically.

  “Out of what? I haven’t quite done anything yet, Mr. Bennet.” The Nomad smirks. “You see, my plans all surround a peaceful conclusion, one where humanity can leave together in peac
e.” He explains almost dolefully.

  “You’re wrong. If you’re allowed to do what you plan to do, no matter what happens, the outcome is always the same.” Noah Bennet clarified.

  “Care to explain what that outcome may be, Mr. Bennet?” The Nomad rolls his eyes.

  “Extinction. Humanity’s extinction.” Noah Bennet proclaims.

  “Impossible. In all my calculations, the extinction of mankind is not an outcome that can ever happen.” The Nomad demurred.

  “Well then your calculations are incorrect.” Hiro countered.

  “Mr. Nakamura. What a delight. The last time traveller, as far as I know, anyway.” The Nomad shrugs with a smirk. “Thank you for delivering yourself to me. You won’t be leaving this country alive, all time travellers are… complicated, as far as my plan is concerned.” He stares impassively, his eyelids pendulous.

  “I cannot say the same, Mr. Nomad. It is not a delight to see you, I don’t take kindly to idle threats.” Hiro glares, pursing his lips moodily.

  “Idle?” The Nomad chuckles. “I went through a very big day yesterday, you two. I’d rather avoid any more drama. Tonight before the break of dawn, my plan will come into effect. Any longer, and I won’t be able to save my son. I’m the only one who can.” He quarrels.

  “Noah Gray is not your son. You stole him.” Noah Bennet blurts.

  “Not that one. Riley, my son. His conscience is trapped inside Noah, for good reason too. I’ve been over the whole ‘you stole Noah’ accusation before, the childhood he’s had with me is far better than the one he was destined to have where he came from.” The Nomad mumbles.

  “How can his childhood have possibly been better than the one he was meant to have? You raised him in an almost prophetic way, carving false instincts into his mind, allowing him to almost grow into a psychopath. I’ve seen that before, and I’d rather not see that in him.” Noah Bennet exclaims.

  “You talk like you know him, Mr. Bennet.” The Nomad clamours.

  “I know him enough. Enough to know that he’s good, we both do.” Noah Bennet whispers.

  “Only because my son is trapped inside of him. If it weren’t for him, Noah would be as evil as he was destined to be.” The Nomad growls.

  “Somehow I suspect that’s not the case, otherwise we would’ve known about him by now, you see?” Noah Bennet denies The Nomad’s claims. “Why is your son trapped inside of Noah anyway?” He asks impatiently.

  “That is a story for another time.” The Nomad mutters.

  “Sylar went through a similar thing.” Noah Bennet reveals.

  “He did? How ironic. At least they’ll have something in common should they ever meet.” The Nomad chuckles dryly.

  “You cannot stop us.” Hiro murmurs.

  “I only want to make the future a better place. I want to prevent world wars, genocides, evil done by humans to humans. But right now, there is one problem I must take care of.” The Nomad walks to his right, and fiddles with some buttons on a control panel.

  “What are you doing?!” Noah Bennet shouts alarmingly.

  “Nothing that concerns you.” The Nomad sighs in an annoyed tone as he lifts the cover of a switch and presses it.

  “This is it, this is how it begins.” Hiro mutters.

  “You’ve launched a nuclear bomb?” Noah Bennet gasped, furrowing his brows worryingly.

  “Nuclear? No.” The Nomad laughs manically. “I haven’t launched anything yet, and you’re not going to stop it either.” He murmurs darkly. Noah Bennet races towards the control panel, but The Nomad picks up his chair and begins smashing the control panel with it, rendering it useless.

  “What have you done?!” Noah Bennet shouts and abruptly aims his gun at The Nomad.

  “Are you aware of my powers, Mr. Bennet? You shoot me, and you may as well have shot yourself.” The Nomad’s corrupted eyes glanced askance at Noah Bennet. “Doesn’t matter if you catch me off-guard either, thankfully my ability works even when I’m sleeping.” The Nomad smirks.

  “Where is he?” Noah Bennet insists on an answer and holsters his gun.

  “Right now? At this moment in time, Noah is talking to… Wait a minute…” The Nomad stands up abruptly and turns away from Noah Bennet and Hiro. “Hisoka…” He mutters to himself.

  “What’s going on?” Hiro whispers to Noah Bennet.

  “Nothing good.” Noah Bennet answers.

  “Hisoka… You’ve eluded me for long enough.” The Nomad speaks into Hisoka’s mind.

  “Your powers won’t reach me here, Nomad.” Hisoka mumbles in pain.

  “Haven’t you forgotten that chip I implanted into all of my employees so that my abilities will reach them?” The Nomad smirks.

  “You told me that I didn’t have one. You lied.” Hisoka grunted.

  “Are you really surprised, dearie?” The Nomad speaks through his teeth, smiling.

  “No, no. This can’t be happening. Get back! Don’t do this!” Hisoka shouts out to Noah Gray, warning him. The Nomad closes his eyes tightly and concentrates on exiling Hisoka into a parallel universe.

  “Now, where were we?” The Nomad sighs “Oh yes. Noah is in a hospital right now saying goodbye to an ill-fated friend who he severely wounded. Right now I suspect he’s on his way back to Dillon and Quinton, two of his other friends. Well, they’re all Riley’s friends really. He was in control of Noah’s body for the most part until his conscience began to merge with Noah’s, faster than I imagined it would, faster than it ever should, really.” He explains as he is suddenly alarmed by a barely functioning monitor on his control panel. “Well, this makes for an interesting twist. I did not see this coming. Looks like we’ll have to cut our meeting short, gentlemen.” He scowls.

  “What is it?” Hiro questions.

  “You see, I make machines. Machines that work with people with powers in order to fulfil my own gains. One of these machines allowed me to clone people. I cloned Noah as a contingency, but his clone has gone rogue.” The Nomad reveals willingly.

  “You’re tampering with things you shouldn’t be messing with, are you trying to play God?” Noah Bennet complains.

  “Close, but not far off. Don’t be a basket-case.” The Nomad sighs tiredly. “It seems that our interests have aligned temporarily, gentlemen. Looks like you have two choices. You can capture me, or participate in your favourite hobby of trying to save the world. I’ll tell you where Noah Gray is.” He offers.

  “We can do both.” Noah Bennet argues.

  “No, you can’t. I won’t let you. You see, you go and I’ll let Hiro live… for now. Don’t rest anytime soon, I will kill you, Hiro.” The Nomad shrugs. “Noah is at the Preservation of Eden located thirteen miles north of Glasshearst. That’s where you’ll find him. Trust me when I say that no matter what you do, nothing can stop this avalanche now.” He smiles.

  “You’re not killing anybody.” Noah Bennet scowls and places his hand on Hiro’s shoulder, walking them to the end of the room away from The Nomad.

  “Hiro, there’s some old Primatech housing nearby, I think it’s abandoned now. They had some in most major countries but it’s somewhere we can safely hide. It’s a long way away from here.” Noah Bennet explains.

  “We can go there, Noah. What about the other Noah?” Hiro asks.

  “I want you to take us to a house in that area and then teleport me to find Noah on my own.” Noah Bennet answers.

  “No, I will not leave you. Angela said we do this together.” Hiro argues.

  “Hiro, please. I need you to stay at the house in case anything compromises our safe-house. Should that happen, you can come to me and we’ll find somewhere else to go. I can’t risk you dying. Visions or not, I won’t go against my instincts, ever.” Noah Bennet explains. He stares towards The Nomad, who tilts his head menacingly under a dimly lit light.

  “Okay. I understand.” Hiro slowly agrees as he places his hand on Noah Bennet’s shoulder and teleports them into the street of the housing area. “Have y
ou ever been here before?” He asks as a streetlight flickers over them, the dying lights fail to pollute the night sky, revealing a dark wonder of stars above.

  “No, I knew people who did though. The person I remember the most was a man named Simon, he used to do the nastiest stuff to people. Thank God Primatech fired him. I wonder where he is today.” Noah Bennet ponders. “That house there, let’s go.” He directs Hiro as they quickly walk into a derelict, but structurally intact house.

  “I don’t think we can do this alone, Noah.” Hiro raises his concerns.

  “I trust Angela wouldn’t send us to our deaths, Hiro. She had her reasons for sending us alone. Soon enough, we won’t be alone. We’ll have Noah Gray on our side.” Noah Bennet responds calmly as he looks outside the window of the house they have taken solace in.

  “Doesn’t it bother you that he is here, in our world? In a place where he shouldn’t be?” Hiro remarks.

  “Of course it does. He has a biological father here and his mother is long dead, neither of which conceived him. Angela did say The Nomad probably killed his parents on the other side, but we don’t know that for sure. Either way, they’ve been deprived of their son’s childhood.” Noah Bennet explains.

  “Should we contact him?” Hiro murmurs.

  “Sylar? Not yet. How do you think you’d feel if you suddenly found out you had a son that you knew couldn’t exist, yet did?” Noah Bennet crosses his arms.

  “I’d feel confused.” Hiro answers as he waves his hands dismissively.

  “No, we’ll wait this out. Once it’s all over, then it’ll be up to Noah if he wants to see Sylar.” Noah Bennet decides. “Can you teleport me to the Preservation of Eden headquarters that The Nomad mentioned?” He requests.

  “Doesn’t it seem too easy? Surely he’s leading you into a trap? Noah, he said his plan would come into effect no matter what.” Hiro argued.

  “All the bad guys think their plans will succeed, why should he be any different? No. I saw him when he looked at that monitor. Noah’s there.” Noah Bennet answers as he checks his gun and holsters it. Hiro walks up to Noah worriedly and places his hand firmly onto his shoulder.

  “Take care of yourself, Noah Bennet.” Hiro nods and teleports Noah Bennet outside the Preservation of Eden as alarms blare loudly. He runs around the Preservation of Eden trying to find an entry into the missile silos and walks through an emergency exit door in order to enter the area. As he runs down the corridor, he bumps into two figures.

  “Don’t!” He yells, aiming his gun towards Dillon and Quinton as they raise their hands.

  “Please don’t. Wait, you’re not from the Preservation of Eden, are you?” Quinton notices.

  “No. I’m not. Where is Noah Gray?” Noah Bennet questions quickly.

  “He’s… He’s inside!” Dillon shouts.

  “I’m here to help. Dillon and Quinton, right?” Noah Bennet recognises the figures.

  “Yes. Do you know Noah?” Quinton stammers.

  “In another life, I suppose I do.” Noah Bennet nods as Dillon and Quinton lead Noah Bennet back towards the silo control panel. Loud crashing occurs as they run as fast as they can into the compound.

  “Where is he?” Noah Bennet exclaims breathlessly.

  “We missed him.” Dillon mumbles worriedly, observing the thick broken concrete shards on the ground. “Look, blood.” She notices.

  “Noah’s blood?” Noah Bennet wonders.

  “Either his, or Wildcard’s.” Dillon answers hastily.

  “Wildcard?” Noah shakes his head in confusion.

  “Noah’s clone. They called him Wildcard.” Quinton answers.

  “How quaint.” Noah Bennet responds whilst he looks towards the opening of the silo. Alarms continue to blare as numbers begin counting down on a monitor.

  “You can’t stop it?” Noah Bennet shouted over the alarms.

  “I tried, I managed to stop every single one around the world because they were all activated here, but there’s one that I can’t stop because it was triggered elsewhere, if I can find out where it was activated, I can stop it.” Dillon answers.

  “You can’t, it was a person called The Nomad, he activated it and destroyed the panels.” Noah Bennet explains.

  “The Nomad?” Dillon walks in front of Noah Bennet and stares at him.

  “Yeah. You know him?” Noah Bennet asks loudly.

  “We know him, but we don’t know you.” Quinton stands parallel to Dillon. “What’s your name?” He demands.

  “I’m Noah Bennet. I’m here to help stop The Nomad.” Noah Bennet answers.

  “Noah? Same name as the other Noah?” Dillon raises her eyebrow.

  “He was named after me, in another universe.” Noah Bennet explains.

  “In another universe? Wait—” Quinton mutters.

  “I don’t have time to explain all of this, look.” Noah Bennet stutters at he points to the monitor. Steam begins rising around the missile from the darkest depths of the silo, as the monitor begins counting down from thirty seconds. “We need to get out of here.” He states and impatiently grabs Dillon and Quinton, leading them hurriedly back outside as they retreat to a safe distance. As thirty seconds come to pass, Noah Bennet, Quinton and Dillon are running as far as they can go whilst the missile launches from the silo. Noah Bennet turns around and the three stare at the missile in shock as it launches into the dead of night.

  “What can we do?” Dillon’s lips quiver.

  “Wait.” Noah Bennet answers.

  “You’re not here to help Riley?” Quinton wonders.

  “I’ll do what I can to help everyone. Riley isn’t bad, is he?” Noah Bennet questions.

  “God, no. Riley is what made Noah realise he was good. I’m still getting used to believing that Noah is good after what happened, but it wasn’t his fault.” Quinton answers.

  “Then I will do what I can to help them both.” Noah Bennet promises as he places his hand on Quinton’s shoulder and looks upward into his eyes. “I’ve been thrown into the deep end here. I only learnt about Noah Gray less than three hours ago. All I know is that The Nomad is going to destroy mankind. I’m here to help Noah to stop him.” He explains.

  “We’re here to help too.” Dillon nods and holds onto Quinton’s hand. “You said something about another universe?” She asks.

  “The Nomad has a power to jump into other universes, he stole the Godsend Device from one and Noah from another.” Noah Bennet answers. Dillon and Quinton gasp quietly.

  “We know that there are other universes, but not that Noah was from one… The Nomad… he must have worked out how to give himself powers.” Dillon murmurs.

  “What makes you say that?” Noah Bennet wonders.

  “Quinton and I, we tracked The Nomad for a long time and made sure what his powers were. Plane jumping or universe jumping, however you want to call it, wasn’t one of them. We were captured by him a while after that, and placed into one of his inventions in order to clone people. We created Wildcard.” Dillon answers.

  “The Nomad created Wildcard, not you. He told me about the machine you were in, I’m sorry that you had to be subjected to his experiments. Maybe you just never knew that was one of his powers?” Noah Bennet answers and apologises as he keeps track of the missile’s position in the sky.

  “No, he definitely wasn’t able to do that, judging from the records we found, he had a person called Michael do it for him. He disappeared a long time ago. Did that happen in 1995?” Dillon asks Quinton.

  “1994, I think.” Quinton asks.

  “The same year Noah was taken. You’d think if someone was taken from a parallel universe, somebody else would try to get them back, right? But what if they couldn’t?” Noah Bennet theorises.

  “What do you mean?” Dillon stutters.

  “What were your powers? Together they had to be able to create clones, correct?” Noah Bennet speaks quickly as the missile begins to reach its peak.

  “Yes, I have the abil
ity to give and take life, Dillon has the ability to self-replicate. The Machine harnessed our ability.” Quinton answered.

  “You say Michael disappeared, but I know for a fact that The Nomad has been jumping in and out of universes. What if he found out how to get that power, but he used Michael in another machine in order to prevent anybody from a parallel universe from crossing over?” Noah Bennet concludes his theory.

  “That’s kind of far-fetched, Mr. Bennet. How do you know The Nomad can jump into other universes?” Dillon asks politely.

  “A friend of mine, Angela Petrelli. She dreams of the future. Over the course of a few years she’s been having fuzzy dreams that she couldn’t interpret. Very recently, she was able to understand what these dreams meant and she saw The Nomad in another universe. She saw Noah Gray, she saw the Godsend Device and she saw the end of humanity. Angela warned me of this so that I can make sure these calamitous events don’t happen.” Noah Bennet answers.

  “Then Michael might be in a machine, but his ability is to jump into other universes. That alone isn’t enough to prevent others from crossing over, you’d need somebody with a serious amount of strength to block that kind of power.” Quinton explains.

  “That’s a problem for another time.” Noah Bennet surmises as he sees the missile curve in the night sky as it sets its sights on a target nearby. They run around the compound and enter a gigantic open field in order to continue following the missile trails as it flies ever so fast in the blackness above them. The missile penetrates clouds as it locks onto its foreordained target. Suddenly, the missile departs from the calm sky and strikes a field nearby. Seconds later, a gigantic boom is heard by Noah Bennet, Dillon and Quinton whilst they stare at the devastated field in the distance.

  “Noah!” Dillon shouts whilst she runs into the distance, followed by Noah Bennet and Quinton.

  “Noah!” Quinton calls out also, running towards the faraway field. After five minutes of running, they reach the annihilated field and search for Noah Gray. Noah Bennet looks around yearningly in shock as he tries to find The Impossible Son. He discovers tracks leading to a nearby church and sees a figure stumbling through the front doors.

  “This way!” Noah Bennet shouts and sprints towards the church, followed by Dillon and Quinton. As they reach closer to the Church, Noah Bennet runs inside. On her way up the stairs, Dillon becomes distracted by a silhouette on a hill, refracted by the heat wave from the remnants of the explosion.

  “Is that…?” Dillon gasps.

  “Wildcard.” Quinton shakes his head. Wildcard stumbles away, refusing to cause a confrontation in his currently wounded state. Dillon grabs Quinton’s hand and they run inside of the church.

  “That’s how we found you, Noah. It’s been a long evening for us. I have to say, it’s very strange for us to hear Sylar’s son with a British accent.” Noah Bennet concludes.