Sunny Days /Peter/

[Accalon Waylon]

Cal was frustrated; his car was in the shop so he’d been stuck to the streets and public transport to get from point A to point B... Or to anywhere interesting for that matter. His MP3 player was turned up to the highest possible volume, blasting the loudest music he could possible find into his head and yet the people around him were still irritating him and driving him crazy. Every once in a while people’s feelings and emotions seemed to try and ignore his barriers, trying to force themselves into his head. But because he was in such a large crowd being this sensitive meant that he couldn’t pick a singly feeling out from the din. Usually Cal found the din comforting; today it was too loud, too erratic... something akin to having a bee stuck in your brain. Not that that had ever happened to him.

Currently he was generally cursing everything, too many people on the streets, the pavement was too narrow – pushing people closer and closer too fin, forcing breath physical contact every few minutes. He’d taken to just walked as if on a warpath – most people were getting out of his way. About a few seconds after he walked past a large sign for a park of some kind, he came to an abrupt stop. Back peddling to the sign. It was a weekday, half of the people bustling around him, now showing obvious signs of irritation at the fact a man had just stopped in the middle of the pavement, were going to work. As such, they were not heading to the park; the large expanse of grass seemed virtually abandoned.

Combing his fingers through his hair, he sighed loudly before storming off towards the park. It wasn’t as empty as he had hoped, there were a few people – but it was no comparison to the pavements or the bus. Even when he was a few steps into the park the buzz receded. Cal was never sure if it was a psychosomatic response to his relaxation that helped him block out other people, to be perfectly honest he didn’t care. He walked over to a large bench in a sitting area, pulling the head phones from his ears and shutting off the very loud music. He dragged his hands through his hair again, no matter how many times he would do that his hair would stay stood up in his usual fashion. Dropping his hands to the bench he glanced around the rest of the park, trying to get a read of the people. But from the abuse of his ability earlier he wasn’t getting much back at this distance, he decided to try and do something which was quite abnormal to Cal – Relax.

[KageLord // Peter Petrelli]

Peter opened his eyes again and found himself staring out at New York once more. He stood on top of the Deveaux building, blinded temporarily by a multitude of flashbacks to his past. It was crazy to think that, only a few years ago, he had stood on top of this building, not knowing about people with abilities. He would give almost anything to return to those simpler times for more than a brief moment. And yet he had to stay when he was. Traveling back in time would only cause trouble.

As Peter grew tired of seeing the images of his happier life, he became invisible and gently flew down to the floor. It was much quicker, and oddly more natural to him, than taking the stairs. As he landed, he was immediately pushed this way and that by the busy people trying to get to work. This was truly New York. Even after all that had happened in the world and all the mayhem around them, daily life continued to be quite similar. However, Peter was thankful that no one gave him a second glance. The formula had become so widespread that most people would think he was just another normal person that wanted abilities.

Still, Peter wanted to leave the area. Seeing so many people flying and speeding around was disconcerting. Peter eyed a familiar park nearby and decided that it would be a good place to go to relax and think out what he wanted to do next. He had to come up with some sort of plan to temporarily get rid of the formula in this area. It was changing people... for the worse, more than for the better. He silently ran across the street and entered the park, quickly finding a nice bench to sit on. There was another person on it, but he didn't look like he would be any trouble. He was busy listening to music and Peter was invisible, so he didn't give him a second thought as he let his mix of emotions fly through his head. Pretty much every emotion that could be felt was present there as he reflected on some events in his life so far and on what he would have to do to make things right again.

[Accalon Waylon]

Cal was actually feeling less tense, seeing the tree’s moving in the breeze and all of that crap people write about in poems, leaving him free to skip through a few tracks on his MP3 player. Looking for something more relaxing, less loud and raging; metal music was good for blocking people out, it was a complete racket of sound. With so few people he could relax without having to concentrate on blocking people out. This realising thing wasn’t all that bad after all; the parked seemed to be working. He was already felling less tense and could even let his eyes drift shut slightly. Even as he did it he had to stop his reflexive reaction to tense, these weren’t exactly times of which people were openly trusting, mind you people were never that free with their trust, the new influx in abilities just seemed to make it more of an awkward subject if you didn’t know what ability that person had. Cal was still yet to meat another Empath though, he’d always wanted to, if anything too compare notes, he’d heard of a few... the only one his mother had told him about had got their ability late in life and became a recluse, not a story that he favoured.

Cal froze for a second when he thought he felt something move past him, shaking his head, he sighed to himself, he was trying to relax and now he was jumping at breezes. He tapped his hands on his jeans, a little tense now, not entirely sure why as he was still as alone as he had been 1 second ago. He unzipped his stone coloured leather jacket, hoping for it to cool him down for a second.

The first thing that hit him was incomprehensible, but it hit him hard. Having been relaxed his barriers were virtually down and whatever that was it felt like someone had smashed a brick in his head. Disorganized emotions always had a tendency to do that too him. It hit him with a force that he virtually chucked himself off the bench, cursing loudly as he landed on the floor. He took a few seconds to put up his wall, focusing on a pinpoint area of the bench were the mess seemed to be coming from. “For craps sake man... calm down or see a shrink... or something!” He shook his head, shaking the remnants of pain from his mind, still glaring at the bench which seemingly had no one sat on it.

[KageLord // Peter Petrelli]

As movement and yelling interrupted his memories and emotions, Peter looked to the side and saw that the boy on the other side of the bench had fallen off and was now staring at him. It took Peter a moment to register why this was so odd; he was invisible. He thought quickly of the best way to respond to this boy, but his curiosity won out in the end.

Peter quickly assumed the shape of another man (seen above) through the power of illusion and made himself visible again. He looked to the younger man and asked calmly, "How did you know I was there?"

He was trying to learn about this boy and his powers without causing fear or suspicion in him. "My name is David Tardis. I have the power of invisibility, thanks to the formula, of course."

Of course, no part of what he said was true. His name was Peter Petrelli, not David Tardis, and his ability was naturally empathic mimicry. He had to be sure to keep everything about himself a secret, just in case. Still, he was interested to see what power this boy had. It was not one of the more common ones, apparently, such as super speed or flight.

[Accalon Waylon]

Cal shook his head as the man’s emotions crystallized. This he was used to, it was les like 50 people grabbing him and forcing him to feel everything. When the man revealed himself it didn’t surprise Cal in the slightest. True, invisibility wasn’t exactly common, but Cal had known the man was sat there before he reveled himself. He could hide his form but he couldn’t hide feelings. People are always feeling something, every second of the day, its not something people could turn off.

He stood up, dusting himself off a little indignantly before taking a seat next to the man. Smiling friendly this time, Cal wasn’t prone to being irritated or angry for long bouts of time. He had enough of that from other people’s emotions.

“The clutter in your head… raging emotions sound familiar?” He laughed lightly to himself. Wrapping his head phones around the MP3 player and slipping it into his pocket. “It’s nice to meet you David.” He nodded lightly, and a little suspiciously. It was true that some people didn’t trust anyone; it was an emotion Cal knew before thinking, and he could feel it around him, he had no reason to lie to him though, so Cal assumed he might be off. He’d give it time for his mind to settle after the headache blast this David had given him.

“My name is Accalon, Most people call me Cal.” He relaxed back in his chair; most people in his family that were not born with abilities had used the formula so it didn’t surprise him that this man did. “And I’m a born Empath, that’s why I knew where you were sitting. You were quite deafening.”

[KageLord // Peter Petrelli]

"An empath huh?" Peter asked rhetorically. "I heard legends of one or two of them, but I had never seen one before..."

Peter paused as he thought for a moment. Suddenly, he jumped up off of his seat and moved a bit away. He had realized that he was probably absorbing Cal's power. It wouldn't exactly be the end of the world if he had an ability like that, but it would probably make his life harder if he didn't learn to control it quickly. Otherwise, like with telepathy, it might activate at the wrong time and give him a major migraine, as he had apparently done to Cal.

He quickly turned back to Cal and apologized before turning his back to him again. He had to test out if he actually had the ability and if it was beyond his current control. Peter soon spotted a bird perched on a branch of the tree whose shadow was keeping himself and Cal cool. After making sure that Cal couldn't see him from where he sat, Peter shot a very small blast of lightning at the branch, snapping it almost instantly.

The bird grew alarmed as it realized its perch was rapidly falling and flew off into the distance. However, just before it flew off, Peter had an intense flash of fear. He couldn't exactly explain it as he had been fine just a moment ago, but he knew that he was feeling the bird's emotions. He mumbled a small apology as he regained his composure and then turned back to Cal. The ability was difficult, but with practice, it would probably not be beyond control. Still, it didn't hurt to get some advice on it.

"So... how did you learn to control your ability?" Peter asked, trying to sound innocent and simply curious.

[Accalon Waylon]

Cal raised an eyebrow in answer to the man’s jumping away from him, but his mind was a little too occupied trying to sort its self out again. He paid no attention as he turned his back to his before managing to right his barriers properly this time, before getting a wave of uneasiness from the man in front of him. Cal couldn’t blame him really, having someone who could feel everything you were feeling could get incredible awkward. He’d seen a similar reaction of people jumping away from him many times, but even at that distance Cal could still feel things. If someone was feeling a strong emotion 5 feet away he’d probably feel it.

“I cheated a little compared to most people… When I say I was born with it – I mean I showed signs of it before I was born.” She shrugged his should before leaning forward to look at the man, trying to put him at ease somewhat. “My Mother told me of some Empath’s that go crazy, or lock themselves in very small rooms. But I’m sure that would make it worse. The more practice the easier to control really.” Cal thought back for a second to when he was around 9 when his ability jumped up a notch, became more powerful, it had take a long time to regain control but his brother had helped. His brother could change emotions in a room and force them onto Cal, giving him the option, learn and defend or splitting migraine.

Shifting in his spot he riffled through his pockets hunting for a chocolate bar, realizing he’d skipped breakfast this morning. He’d been planning to go to a dinner somewhere but all the people had been driving him crazy. Here I am talking about control and I was driven here by maddening emotions. He laughed lightly in his head, keeping his expression pretty light even though he was talking about control and had been pushed here because his control wavered today. “Why do you ask anyway?” Cal turned suddenly curious, realizing that most people’s first question is How do you do that? … not how do you control it.

[KageLord // Peter Petrelli]

"Um..."

That was all Peter managed to get out as he thought of how to answer the boy's question. He wasn't completely sure whether he could trust him or not and it would be dangerous to allow certain people to know where he was. He turned to the boy and looked him straight in the eyes. He made sure that he was fully focused and then tried to delve into Cal's mind with telepathy.

It was difficult at first as it seemed that Cal was focusing on shutting himself off from him and the rest of the world. However, it would take more than that to stop a strong telepath. Yet, Peter hesitated for a moment. Perhaps what he was doing was wrong. Maybe he shouldn't be poking around in Cal's head, searching through his thoughts. But Peter realized it was necessary to prove if he was trustworthy. If he was, it would be much easier to gain control of this new ability. If he wasn't... things might not end so well. Also, to further justify his actions, Peter thought about how Cal's ability was basically doing the same thing, but with emotions.

Peter's resolution flared and he decided it was time to find out the truth about Cal.

[Accalon Waylon]

The wave of distrust hit him first, this man was amazingly skeptical of everything; at least that was what Cal was getting from him right now. Although Cal knew not to judge people on their first emotions. However this level of distrust was grating on Even Cal, even with his walls up. This David felt emotion pretty powerfully – that much was obvious from the go point when he inadvertently gave Cal a migraine. However this was pretty new to Cal, something about feeling emotions constantly Cal sometimes blocked out even his own, feeling oddly numb compared to people who only feel their own emotions. His brothers called him Oxymoron as much as they did oroborus.

Cal was wondering why he was now looking at him rather oddly, and not speaking. If the man meant to be disconcerting, it wasn’t working on Cal – but he couldn’t quite work out what his idea was. He leaned back on the bench relaxing and smiling lightly – even when faced with an odd person it was hard to curb Cals enthusiasm.

Cal was just happy that even this strong emotional man was significantly better that the mass of bodies not far away on the concrete jungle that was the city, sometimes even Cal forgot he was in the city when he was in parks. His attention was disrupted for a second when a person flew straight over the park. He hid his irritation behind his smile but grumbled a little inside his head. Even though most of his family had abilities, some from the formula, Cal still found it weird that now you were virtually considered second class if you didn’t have one. And how some jobs were now centered around an ability you inject yourself with other than what you work for. He tilted his head, trying to dispel that chain of thought and spoke a little sarcastically to David. “Thought of an answer yet?” There was no malicious intent behind the sentence, if anything it was little more than a jest.

[KageLord // Peter Petrelli]

As Peter entered Cal's mind, he felt more at ease. He quickly sifted through his thoughts to try to find something that would tell him his true loyalties. After searching for a few moments, Peter sighed in relief and backed off. He had stumbled across memories of his family and his feelings about the formula. Cal could be trusted.

Peter left Cal's mind completely and smirked. He pulled off his glasses and replied, "Yes, I have. The truth is... I am not what you think I am. I was born with the ability of empathic mimicry. I absorb the abilities of others like us, even synthetic abilities from the formula, by being close to them. For example, I have absorbed your ability of empathy already, though not on purpose. That is why I asked. Now that I have another ability, it would be nice to control it before it gets me killed."

Peter, still in his disguised form, gave Cal a wink and sat down again on the bench. Partly to warm himself and partly to show Cal that he was telling the truth, Peter created a small blue flame in his hand. After a few seconds, he felt warm enough and closed his hand, putting out the flame.

[Accalon Waylon]

Cal threw up a few more walls of protection from the man, if he couldn’t control his ability and overloaded on people’s emotions Cal would probably cannel them at exactly the same time. Not some Cal fancied doing today; his head was still feeling a little achy from the last smash of emotion forced on his head. He sat quietly for a few seconds, building his walls upon each other until he could only feel a dull imprint of the man’s emotions. Enough to feel peaks of it when he used his powers. Cal had never met someone with multiple powers before, at least not ones that were utterly different from each other.

“I can see why you wouldn’t want to open with that next to Hello” Cal smirked, seemingly unfazed by it. Although he was horrendously curious, his face did not give that away in the slightest. Cal was a master of keeping his emotions in his mind. However he doubted that mattered much when it came to David, he could feel straight through his farce now. But Call was simply happy to meet another Empath face to face.

“I can bet walking down the street isn’t the best idea for you in current times? Makes my mere headache seem tiny compared with have several abilities to reign in.” It might be easy to mistake Cal’s words for pity, if David could feel his emotions however, it was obvious they weren’t, Cal was just curious – he always had been. He thought for a minutes, over the fact he spoke of needing to control it, trying to think of a way to condense years of practicing he came up a little blank apart from bombarding the man until he learnt to block. “Do you have any other abilities... where outside forces try and get in your head? That you have to block out? If not your going to have to learn that first.” He grinned lightly, somehow doubted that idea as David had absorbed his ability in seconds with no help from Cal.

[KageLord // Peter Petrelli]

Peter was a bit happy to find that someone like this still existed. There was still someone so calm and... friendly. Times were tough throughout the world and all of the things Peter had seen were starting to weigh down on him, but it was people like this Cal that kept his hopes up. Perhaps he could find an ally in him; it was clear that he needed as many as he could get.

Despite how he appeared, Peter could weakly still feel some of Cal's emotions if he tried. It seemed as if Cal had learned to shut his emotions away into his head, but with a power like his, it would be difficult for him to hide everything from Peter now. Peter felt Cal's curiosity and wasn't so intrigued by it. It was pretty common for someone who had just learned of abilities like Peter's to be curious.

"That's true. It wouldn't be too wise for me to walk through the streets of New York without getting this new ability in check first. As for my other ones, through practice I have learned to control them all well enough. And to answer your question... maybe. A long long time ago I met a telepath named Matt Parkman. He tried to read my mind to find out what I knew about something, but my power allowed me to absorb the ability and we sort of canceled each other out so we both ended up with migraines. Since then I've just sort of been able to block out telepaths. If I really try, I can usually block them out completely. I might need a bit of practice to get used to blocking out emotions, but if there's no special trick to it, I should be fine... I think." Peter said as he focused on Cal. He was preparing for Cal to test out how well he could block off his mind from others.

[Accalon Waylon]

Cal leaned back in his chair, sifting through his own memory back for emotions that are the hardest to block out, fear and hate are the usually ones that get slammed into you. Namely because people feeling happier emotions are at peace. People feeling these are usually in turmoil and have no intention to do anything else but. He noted about the Telepath, if he could bring a similar talent round to block other things, it might provide a dampener. Although he expected it wouldn’t be enough to block something like the headache David had given him.

Never the less, he assumed that he did not have the years of practice Cal had had as a child. In a way, getting his ability so early it was if he cheated on the control as some people, most people in his family were at least 12 before they started showing, some much older.

He brought some of the more powerful emotion to the forefront of his mind. They would register as Cal’s emotions until he actually intended them too. Currently they were little more than a memory so peter shouldn’t sense it coming. Which was the best plan. “Hopefully the same way you block out telepaths would be similar to this, but usually it’s best to pull up a few more walls, different levels of emotions require different levels of being blocked out.” He grinned lightly before turning the memories and feeling them himself, at such a close proximity to David it should smashed into him unawares. Cal gritted his teeth to stop the emotion from overwhelming him entirely.