Fan Fiction: The Family that Fights Together

The Family That Fights Together
Part 1 of 7

Niki Sanders pulled the car up to the house. She got out, shut the door, and walked up to the porch. The door was already open, there were men swarming around and holding clipboards and walkie-talkies. She approached one of them carefully, and tapped on his shoulder.

"Yeah?" The man turned around. "Hey, you're Niki, aren't you? Mr. Sanders' daughter?"

Niki nodded. "My dad... what happened?"

"We have no idea," The policeman shrugged. "He was found lying in a pool of his own vomit, blood and urine. We didn't notice any signs of violent struggle, but it appears as though his head had been bludgeoned from the back or something. There's still more tests to be done. You've got to go down to the station one of these days to arrange for his body to be -"

"Can I go in?" Niki interrupted.

"Yeah, sure," The policeman said. "CSI's all done here." He held out his hand. "I'm Inspector Reese, by the way." Niki took his hand, smiled briefly, and entered the house.

The smell was recognizable, immediate and clear. When Micah was younger, he had vomitted over one of Niki's bras. She had taken him to the hospital, and D.L. and her stayed there with him for a week. Eventually she came back to an undergarment festering with bacteria, ants and small worms.

The metallic smell of blood was also reminiscent, from Niki's not-so-long-ago days of murdering and assaulting. She was only glad that that part of her life was over and gone.

Chalk markings demarcated Hal Sanders' death at the foot of his stairs, which were located immediately to the right of the house upon entrance. There was blood splattered violently over the white walls. The vomit-urine smell was emanating from that part of the stairs, and the dried bloodstain was clear.

Niki turned as Inspector Reese stepped into the house.

"We're going to clear out off the area," the Inspector said. "We'll be back later at 2 pm, but for now we're getting the evidence to the lab. You're going to be fine?"

Niki nodded. "Yeah, sure."

"Okay," Inspector Reese replied, and he left the house, looking sympathetic.

Niki frowned. It was odd, really, that what she was feeling now was basically... nothing. Her life had been spent without Hal Sanders, and now that it really was that way, there didn't seem to be much difference or cause to mourn.

Except, of course, she was her father.

Niki sighed. This murder was the last thing she had needed. Micah was still recovering from all the action he had been through while trying to stop Sylar, and DL was still trying to get a higher-paying job. She just came out here because of civility. Granted, she had cried some when the first police call came, but gradually, it seemed that the other, more important, more alive things in her life were going to the top of the attention list.

Niki decided to explore the house further. She had only been to her father's house once, many years ago, when Micah was still a toddler. It didn't seem to change, but something had definitely gone on here, and Niki, indifferent as she was feeling, wanted to know exactly what.

She sidestepped the chalk mark of her father's figure on the floor, and climbed the stairs. Halfway up, she thought she heard a car pull up in the driveway.

Niki turned, and she heard the crunching of someone's large feet across the gravel. Can't be Inspector Reese, she thought.

"Idiot. Complete idiot," A man's voice muttered. "Stupid man just couldn't die well enough."

Niki gasped. She turned around, looking for a way out, and she quickly hurried up the stairs. She plastered herself in the doorframe of a bathroom, listening intently. To her horror, the man began climbing up the stairs as well!

The man walked past the bathroom, and apparently up another flight of stairs.

Niki quickly stole out, and dashed downstairs. She ran noisily down and out of the house, which was when she noticed the car. The good-looking Nissan Versa. Sitting in the driver's seat was a muscular black man. His eyes widened as he saw her in the doorway, and he pressed hard on the horn.

"Jesus!" The man upstairs yelled. "I found it! I'm comin', I'm comin'!"

Niki turned to go back into the house, but the larger man was already coming down the stairs!

"What the- " The bulky, nearly fat, man wheezed. "Who are you?"

"Who are you?" Niki cried.

"Hey!" The man's eyes flashed in recognition. "You're Nicole, Hal's daughter!"

"Damn right I am!" Niki said. "What did you do to him?"

"Nothing he wouldn't have done to himself, suga," The man wheezed. "I think you'd better come with us."

"You wish," Niki said, and turned, but the black man had come out of the car and was heading into the house. She was trapped.

"The police just left," She warned.

"Yeah. They just did," The black man scoffed. "What are you going to do, scream?"

He grabbed her arm roughly, and on instinct, Niki jerked it away. A sickening crack was heard as she dislocated the man's wrist. He howled in pain, grabbing his hand.

"You'd better come with us," The fatter man said and pulled out a gun. "Our boss wants to meet you."

"Your boss killed my dad?" Niki demanded.

"Yeah, he did." The fat man aimed, but Niki was too fast. She felt an surge of adrenaline, anger and fear all at once, and she grabbed the fat man's wrist and twisted. He screamed and dropped the gun. She twisted his arm violently, and jabbed his nose with her other elbow. That elbow then went down to his fat stomach, where she was still able to make him double over with one good hit. The fats, clearly, didn't do much to protect.

She smashed him against the wall, where he went down and stayed down.

The 'click' of the gun was a bad sound. She turned her head slowly, and it confirmed her fear: The black man had the gun leveled at her head.

"I don't think so," A new voice said. The black man gasped, and he dropped the gun. His eyes rolled back into his head and he toppled. Niki gasped in surprise as D.L. Hawkins pulled his fist out of the black man's chest.

"D.L!" Niki hugged him. "When?"

"This guy, Inspector Reese, he called me up. Said something about you being very sad or depressed. Asked me to come over here and keep an eye on you," D.L. looked down at the men. "He had the right idea."

"I'm NOT sad," Niki sighed. "Which is weird."

"What's weirder is, who are these people?" D.L. asked.

"I guess we'll find out," Niki said. She walked over to the fat man and jerked back his head violently, snapping him out of unconscious.

"Do you believe me," Niki said. "When I tell you I can pull your head off with my own little hand?" The man's eyes widened, and he nodded slowly and cautiously.

"Who are you working for?" Niki asked. "Who sent you to kill my dad?"

The man choked back a gulp, and he said in a few disjointed syllables that still came out clear.

"Li...Linderman," He choked.

Part 2 of 7

The door slammed shut, and Niki rushed in, her face flushed with heat.

"Niki!" D.L. cried, exasperated as he opened the door. "What are you doing?"

"I'm going back to Las Vegas," Niki said.

"Niki!" D.L. reasoned. "We just got here!"

"For the wrong reasons," Niki snarled.

"And what are you going to do once you get to Las Vegas? Linderman has land and contacts there too!" D.L. yelled.

"Look, I can't deal with him again," Niki said. "I know you can't either. We just got out of this mess. We are NOT getting back in."

"Mom?" Micah came out of the bathroom. "What's going on?"

"We're leaving, Micah," Niki said. "Pack your stuff."

"But we just got here!" Micah exclaimed.

"Pack your stuff," Niki ordered.

"Niki!" D.L. grabbed her and spun her around to face him. "Listen to me. Linderman is dead. He's not coming back."

"Linderman?" Micah asked.

"Micah, go into the room," Niki pointed to the adjacent living room which came with the suite that had been booked for them.

"No, I want to hear," Micah said.

"The point is," D.L. interrupted. "Is that I put my fist through Linderman's head. I know he's not coming back."

"His company people must be mad at us," Niki reasoned. "They know who we are, D.L. They know what you and I could do. They must have gone after Hal to get revenge."

"Then if they come after us," D.L. said. "We'll fight them off! We can do that now."

"Yeah!" Micah added.

"Stay out of this!" D.L. and Niki yelled in unison.

"Dad, I want to help too," Micah cried.

"Micah, listen," Niki bent down to look him in the eye. "These men are dangerous. You know that. I don't want you getting involved. Now pack your stuff, and we'll go home."

"No!" Micah said defiantly. "Mom, if these guys are still coming after us, we need to stop them, or we won't get any peace."

"That's what I was trying to say," D.L. said, crossing his arms.

"No, you listen to me now," Niki ordered. "This is an order. Pack your stuff."

Micah sighed in frustration, turned and began to pull his backpack out of the closet.

Niki turned. "D.L," She said. "I need you to trust me. We can't deal with anymore of Linderman, his company or him."

"And I need you to trust me," D.L. said darkly. 'Linderman isn't alive." He turned and walked out of the room, by walking through the door.

Niki sighed, and she headed into the bathroom, as Micah continued throwing whatever little he had into his backpack unhappily.

The moment Niki entered the bathroom, the voice rang out so clearly.

"Niki, Niki," The familiar voice sighed. "I thought we were all done here."

Niki looked up, and the bathroom mirror greeted her. Inside the mirror, her reflection was shaking her head sadly, her eyes glowering with that familiar mix of menace and pity.

"You!" Niki gasped. "I thought... I thought..."

"I was gone?" Jessica raised her eyebrows. "I thought so too."

"What are you doing here again?" Niki cried. "Get out now! You don't belong here!"

"I belong wherever you want me to," Jessica said. "I thought you knew that by now."

"Well, I don't need you," Niki said fiercely. "My life's back on track now."

Jessica leaned forward, so close she looked as though she was going to leap out of the mirror.

"We both know that's not true," Jessica said. "Linderman is after you."

"That's why we're leaving," Niki said, turning to look at the ground.

Jessica's face was still there, this time, smirking in a puddle of water on the floor.

"I thought you were strong enough. But shying away from the trouble isn't going to resolve it," Jessica said, almost with a hint of philosophical thought. "Although I must say, Linderman's men did a good job of killing our dad."

Niki's face scrunched up in disgust.

"You don't know him that well either," Jessica said. "Don't act like a saint. You're not at all sad he's gone, are you?"

Niki chose not to answer.

"The point is," Jessica smiled sinisterly. "I'm back."

A loud knock on the front door snapped Niki's attention back to her present surroundings.

"Mom!" Micah cried out.

Niki pulled open the door, with such force she nearly took it off its hinges.

The knocks on the front door got more and more rapid, and with increasing force.

"Stand back," Niki ordered. Micah hurried behind his mother, as she edged forward. She glanced at the open closet, and pulled out the metal clothes-hanger bar with one good pull.

She opened the door, and swung the bar as hard as she could.

The woman behind the door gasped, and Niki felt her body suddenly immobilized, like someone had paralysed her with a good bout of snake venom.

"What are you trying to do?!" The woman yelled. "Kill me?"

Niki gasped as she recognized the woman. "Mom?!"

"I don't have time to talk!" Mrs Sanders said, ducking under Niki's flung arm and entering the room. The moment she was behind Niki, Niki felt her muscles and strength returning to her.

"Close the door," Mrs Sanders said. "Hello, Micah!" She cooed. "Where's D.L.?"

"He left earlier," Niki said, shutting the door. "What are you doing here?"

"Linderman," She said, eliciting a gasp from both Micah and Niki. "He's after me too."

Part 3 of 7

"Mom," Niki said exasperatedly as her mother plopped herself down onto the hotel bed. "What are you doing here?"

"What," Mrs Sanders looked up at her with a semi-innocent grin. "Can't I come visit my daughter?"

"Mom, I'm serious," Niki said. "You wouldn't come out into the open unless you had to."

"I had too, then," Mrs Sanders said, looking at Micah's open backpack. "You guys going somewhere?"

"Mom," Niki said firmly. "What's going on?"

Jane Sanders stood up. She wasn't very tall, in fact, nearly a head below her daughter. She was slim, with a body type matching that of her daughter. Her once blond hair was now striped with white, and she had minimal wrinkles, only in the parts where she scrunched her face up to think.

"Your dad is dead," She said.

"I know," Niki said. "Why else am I here?"

"You didn't find me," Jane said.

"I didn't know where to find you," Niki said. "You moved since your last address, and last time you visited, you didn't leave anything behind. Not even your new phone number."

"When did she visit us?" Micah asked, speaking up.

"When you were so young," Jane Sanders cooed. "Just a teeny weeny little pea I would hold tight and sing to."

Micah looked at Niki. Niki sighed, and nodded.

"Grand...ma?" Micah said, trying out the name.

Jane looked slightly embarrassed, and she turned back to Niki. "Linderman's after me. Now I need your help. I need you to find me a safe place."

"Why would he be after you?" Niki asked.

"Well-" Jane looked around uneasily. "It's kinda a long story."

"Mom," Niki tried explaining. "I can't help. Linderman is after me too. And it makes it even worse if you and Dad somehow did something to ****** him off."

"No, you listen," Jane said suddenly, standing up. "I am living in fear. I don't think you know what it's like-" At which point Niki scoffed. "-But I think I have a right to choose where I want to be."

"Fine then," Niki said. "But we're leaving anyway."

"I'm coming with you," Jane said stubbornly.

"That's not possible," Niki sighed. "You have a house here. Mom, you need to go to the police. Ask them for protection or something."

"Niki," Jane said. "You know how much I hate the police."

"Why?" Micah asked.

"Another long story," Niki filled in. "Your grandma here is full of long stories and secrets."

Jane smiled. "Oh, everyone has secrets."

Suddenly, D.L. came right into the room, by walking through the door.

Niki's eyes widened, and she shook her head slightly.

"Daniel!"Jane smiled, opening her arms for a hug. "How did you come in? I didn't hear the door."

D.L. hugged Jane, and looked at Niki quizzically. Niki shrugged. "Guys," D.L. said. "I checked us out. We can go now. And I think we'd better go fast." He cocked his head at the door. "There are men downstairs." The way he said 'men', it was clear.

"Linderman's men?" Jane gasped. D.L.'s eyebrows went up. "You know about Linderman?"

"Somehow, she and my Dad did something to set either Linderman or his company off," Niki said. "That's why Hal was killed."

"Either way, we got to go," D.L. said. He opened the door this time, and signalled for them to leave.

Micah grabbed his bag, and Niki her purse, and they all left the hotel room.

The elevator ride down wasn't eventful, but once in the lobby, it was clear that they were being watched. Everywhere they turned, a man in white-and-black clothes would be standing there, waiting.

"This is impossible," Jane hissed. "Linderman is dead."

D.L. looked at Niki, a look of shock and... smugness on his face. "I told you so," he whispered.

They quickly cut through the hotel pool and across the courtyard, ending up in the open-air carpark.

"I called a cab," D.L. said. They rushed outside to the roadside.

"Come on, hurry," D.L. frowned.

"Mom," Niki said, turning to her mother. "You've got to tell me. What's going on? What did Dad and you do?"

Jane smiled. "So special, aren't you, Niki," she said. "You're as special as me. As your sister."

"My sister?" Niki was confused.

"Jessica," Jane said, and Niki felt her heart beat faster.

"What about Jessica?"

"You and Jessica were born as twins," Jane said. "Jessica was older, you were younger," She said.

Niki gasped. Her... twin sister!

"Now you know the truth," A voice in her head said sneeringly.

"Mom...Dad..." Micah cried, pointing. Men from the two ends of the road were headed toward them.

"We have to go, now," D.L. said, and they headed back into the carpark. But men were also headed towards them.

"We'll have to fight them," Jane said.

"We can't fight them," Niki cried. "Look at how many there are!"

"Daniel," Jane looked at D.L. "Take Micah and go through that wall there. I think it leads into the kitchen."

D.L.'s face registered surprise. "How do you-"

"No time! Go!" Jane ordered, barking, for the first time Niki heard it in ten years. D.L. nodded, grabbed Micah's hand and they rushed into the kitchen by going through the wall.

"They followed you," Niki realized, as the men came closer. "You led them here. They're after you, not me."

"But now," Jane said, looking up into her daughter's eyes. "They're after you too."

Niki looked at her mother, and an intense surge of an unknown feeling welled up inside her. She looked up at the men who were crowding around her, trapping her, surrounding her.

"Move aside, Nicole," A rather tall, middle-aged man snarled, stepping forward.

"No," Niki said. "I won't."

The words were out of her mouth before she even knew she said them.

And then, just like that, she blacked out.

Part 4 of 7


The first thing Niki noticed when she woke up was how pink the room was.

Pink wallpaper. Pink lamps, pink carpeting, pink window curtains, pink bedcovers and bedsheets, pink cabinet, pink stationary on the desk decorated with pink floral patterns.

"Ugggh..." Niki shook her head groggily.

"Mom! You're awake!" Micah cried, running into her arms as she struggled to get up.

"Of course I am, babe," Niki said, kissing her son's forehead. "What, you think I was dead? Now I'm some undead zombie rising up? It'll take more than -"

"A few bad guys?" Micah smiled.

"Yeah, to stop me," Niki said, and flashes of memory came back at her. She remembered a surge of a weird feeling, rising up at her, and she was so taken by surprise she let it go. Following that she had images of her hands pulling tendon apart, tearing muscle from bone, crushing skulls...

Niki gasped, pulling herself away from Micah.

"Micah," She asked worriedly. "Where's your grandma and-"

"We're here," Jane said, and Niki turned, finally noticing that her mother was now standing in the doorway, amusedly observing the displays of affection the son and mother were showing each other.

"What happened?" Niki asked, though she knew it herself very well.

"If you want the details, Micah probably shouldn't be in here," Jane replied casually.

"It was Jessica," Micah piped up suddenly.

Jane chuckled. "You should keep that boy under lock and key."

"Where are we?" Niki looked around the grotesquely-pink room.

"My house," Jane said, eliciting a groan from Niki. "I know, it's pink and all, and I trust that to be one of the reasons your father and I divorced."

"D.L," Niki wheezed, deciding not to focus too much on the pink-framed mirror on the wall next to the bed, hanging above the pink floral-patterned desk. "Where's DL?"

Micah's face suddenly clouded over with worry.



Jane smiled at him. "Go on, child, go outside. Your mother and I need to talk."

Once Micah had left, Jane shut the door. "Niki," She said. "D.L.'s been's caught."

"WHAT?!" Niki leaped off her bed. She felt the familiar, but unknown surge of emotion, well up inside her.

"Relax," Jane said. "And tell Jessica to get back in. If she comes out I'm using my power straight."

Niki turned to the mirror that was on the wall next to the bed.

Jessica's eyes twitched slightly, and her mouth flattened into a thin, disapproving line. "She can't."

"Yes, I can," Jane replied, as if she had read Niki/Jessica's mind.

"Your power," Niki said, and she had another flash of memory back to the hotel room, where she suddenly felt her body losing all will, and her muscles incapable of taking commands from her brain.

"I don't think you're that shocked," Jane said, eyeing her daughter. "Considering what you did."

"Jessica did that," Niki said, shaking her head.

"No, dear, you did that," Jane replied calmly. "Your power is strength. Jessica's power is weaseling that out of you."



Jessica's mouth began to curl down, into a very disapproving frown. "You'd better ask her what happened twenty years ago," she suggested.

When Niki related her question, Jane sighed. "I suppose it's time," Jane held Niki's hand, and looked deep into her eyes.

"Jessica and you were born as twins, Jessica first, then you later, exactly 3.15 seconds afterward," she said. "But here's the problem. When you were born, you were dying. Your sister was ready, but you weren't. You were premature. Hal and I wanted to save you, but the doctors said it was too hard, that you were so undernourished that you probably wouldn't make it.

"So we went to Las Vegas to find a man. His name, Daniel Linderman, known for his great amounts of wealth and connections. We wanted him to find a hospital good enough so that we wouldn't lose you. He did even better. He had a power."

"Power?" Niki frowned. "Linderman's... one of us?"

"Oh, yes, I was shocked too, when I first saw what he could do," Jane said. "I thought I was the only one. Your dad, he's a normal being, of course, not that we're very much abnormal ourselves.

"Anyway, Linderman's ability is to heal, or generate lifeforce, or something like that," Jane tottered. "He was about to save you, to bring you back to health, but he couldn't solve the problem of your brainwaves not at a frequency that was normal. So we suggested that he use his abilities to 'transfer', if you will, some cerebral functionability from your twin sister to you."

"That's how-?!" Niki was aghast at learning this fact.

"It wouldn't have mattered anyhow," Jane looked at Niki sadly as she pulled her hand away from Jane's. "Both of you had gifts, inherited from me. I didn't know what yours were, but Jessica's, now that was very clear. She could create emotional rapports, bridges, whatever you call it. When anyone was feeling down, she could feel it. When anyone feeling happy, angry, lustful, she felt every single one, as long as the person was near her. Eventually, she developed some sort of emotional block. At that young age, can you imagine what it would have been like?"

"I think I can imagine it at my age," Niki said with a controlled level of disgust and sarcasm. She couldn't believe her mother had kept this information from her for so long, causing her to endure what she did throughout the past year!



"Then your father started getting into 'his rut'," Jane sighed.

Again, another random flash of memory. Of her father shoving her roughly into a table. Then of her bare hands, slamming her father's head against an oak cabinet in a good-looking hotel room.

"Now, I loved Hal," Jane said. "I loved your dad. Couldn't stand him, but I loved him. But after his company fired him, he started getting into beer and alcohol. Started throwing things around the house. He kept beating you, kept hitting you and Jessica. But here's the weird thing," She said, her voice dropping two levels softer. "You wouldn't feel it. He would beat you, but you would just stand there. And Jessica would look like she was the one in pain, while you just looked blank."

"Damn right, I did," Jessica hissed, and Niki focused her attention back on her mother. Her mother, though, was looking quite apprehensive, like she was about to say something she would regret.



"Well then he killed Jessica," Jane said finally, clearly scared Niki would yell out and turn into a fiery beast, if the truth was out from under those rocks and stones.

But somehow, Niki guessed it coming. She saw another one of those flashes of memory, of Jessica being hit over the head violently with a wine bottle. Somehow, strangely, though, she felt nothing, like a complete lack of emotion over learning how her sister died, though surely, even though she saw that coming, she would have felt something.

"You're just sooo heartless," Jessica snickered from the mirror.

"Go on," Niki said, ignoring that woman in the glass while Jane had stopped, looking at her cautiously.

"I had to divorce him. I had to get out of the relationship, and get you out too," Jane said. Niki didn't need anymore retelling. She knew how the rest of it turned out. She just didn't know, one day, why her parents decided to get a divorce. She decided that it was something she had done, and that set off a long guilt trip, one which she was determined never to return to.

"So Linderman was the culprit. Linderman was the one who fused Jessica to me," Niki said. "But that doesn't explain why he's after you," She said, shrewd enough to catch her mother's casual lack of detail.

"Because I owe him something," Jane sighed. "I promised him that I would deliver Jessica's body to him after I divorced and had full custodial rights over what to do with your sister."

"Clearly, you didn't."

"She's my daughter!" Jane erupted, standing from the bed. "I couldn't send off my daughter to some unknown entity to perform scientific tricks on her!"

"So what does he want now?" Niki asked, getting up, and surprised to find that she was able to balance herself quite well.

"I don't know!" Jane yelled. "All I know is that I didn't deliver my promise twenty years ago, and he's coming after me now!"

"If he wanted to come after you," Niki said, her brain immediately working. "He would have twenty years back. No," Niki glanced at the mirror. "This is something else all together."



Jessica smiled, and the way she did told Niki what she wanted to know.

"Mom, we have to go get D.L. now," Niki said hurriedly. "Linderman's not the one who took him!"

"It's Linderman," Jane said deflatedly. "Linderman, dead or not, obviously had wishes he wanted carried out after his death. Some unfulfilled-"

"Mom," Niki cut her mother off. "How was D.L. caught?"

Jane shrugged. "I was watching you tear his men apart. I don't think I noticed so much where D.L. went."

Niki pulled open the door, and motioned for Micah to come in. "Micah," she asked. "How was your dad taken?"

"He was running," Micah recalled. "But all of a sudden these men surrounded him, and they had these weird handcuffs made of something - "

"Your dad couldn't get through them?"

Micah shook his head. "No." At which point all the puzzle pieces clicked together. "He just told me to run."



"Micah did, and I found him," Jane said. She saw Niki contemplate the situation. "You're thinking about saving D.L., aren't you?"

"Mom, he's my husband. Micah's Dad!" Niki whirled around to face her mother.

"I don't care," Jane said stubbornly. "I want to go to Las Vegas, and get out of here."

"Mom," Niki said in a controlled tone of voice, trying to control that onsurge of weird emotion again. What's wrong with me, Niki thought. What I'm feeling is completely wrong!

"Mom, those men are probably at my house right now," Niki said. "They don't work for Linderman, and surely they won't hesitate to shoot you if you go there."

"So..." Jane looked helpless for a moment. Then her expression hardened. "They can't shoot me."

"Mom, you can't stop ten men for very long," Niki said. "And you know it. You need to stay put."

"Linderman's men will come here very soon. They're probably on their way now."

"Then run. Do what you can. But I have to save D.L," Niki said with an air of finality.



Jane breathed hard, then her face registered defeat and slackened. "All right. But I want Jessica to fight them, not you. She knows how to put the right emotions to your power."

Niki turned briefly to the mirror, where Jessica nodded coldly.

"We'll see," Niki said. "Micah," she said, turning to her son. "Stay here with Grandma, okay?"

"No," Micah said. "I want to go rescue Dad, too."

"Let him go," Jessica's voice called out from the mirror. "After Kirby Plaza..."

"You can come," Niki said, knowing clear well that Micah would prove himself more useful than ever. "But you stay close to me."

She left quickly, a small part of her glad to set eyes on another color other than pink, and glancing back only to see Jane wave at her, smiling wistfully.

Micah's voice primed her for the upcoming fight.

"Mom," he asked as they headed outside to Jane Sanders' car. "Can Jessica not come out?"

"Honey," Niki said, as truthfully as she could. "I really don't know."

Part 5 of 7


Niki Sanders pulled the car quickly out of first gear and headed speedily down the highway.

"Mom..." Micah asked. "Do you know where to go?"

"No," Niki said. "But I know someone who does."

Micah looked puzzled. Then he seemed to get it. "Oh," he said, with a slight note of disappointment.

Niki tousled his hair slightly, and tweaked the rearview mirror to face her.

Glaring back at her was her dead twin sister, whom Linderman had bonded so close to her when they were barely babies, that she could now, see even from the grave.

Of course, that sister had all the rage.

"Where is D.L.?" Niki demanded.

"Like I know?" Jessica asked, clearly toying with her.

"You know where D.L. is being kept," Niki said matter-of-factly. "When you took over my body, when you worked for Linderman as that assassin-"

"You worked for him too," Jessica corrected.



"You had plans to do something to D.L., didn't you," Niki continued, as if Jessica didn't say anything. "You and Linderman made a deal, or something, and you wanted D.L. for some purpose."

"Well, now that you got it figured out..." Jessica mock-sighed. Then her eyes snapped harshly back onto Niki's, boring into her. "I don't know why Linderman wanted D.L. All I know is that he would pay double what he was paying if I brought D.L. to him," Jessica shrugged. "Obviously that didn't happen, and D.L. killed Linderman, so that was the end of that."

"WHERE is D.L. being kept?!" Niki said. "If the plan was set, then there would have to be a place they would use to hold him. Someplace that is specific to D.L, because you know anything ordinary wouldn't hold him in."

Jessica sighed, and revealed the address. Niki nodded mutely, tweaked the rearview mirror away from her, and looked down at Micah. He was looking away, one hand pressed on the glove compartment, trying not to be disturbed, but clearly listening in.




*****************************************

Jane Sanders paced back and forth across the pink carpet on her floor, getting tenser and tenser by the minute. She was looking out the window, expecting a man in black to barrel in upon her.

To her surprise, there was no such man.

The phone rang suddenly, causing Jane to jump. She clutched her chest weakly.

"Damn it," She muttered and picked up the phone.

A gruff male voice asked, "Where's Miss Sanders?"

"Speaking."

"Niki," The man said. "It's Inspector Reese here."

"I'm not Niki," Jane said. "I'm her mother. If this is anything concerning Hal's death, please do tell me. I have a right to know."



There was a brief pause, then Inspector Reese continued. "Mrs Sanders, please do tell your daughter that we have the results of Mr Sanders' autopsy."

"That fast?" Jane was surprised.

"We don't have the complete analysis. But we have enough to go on," Inspector Reese said. "We know for sure now, for example, that your husband died of asphyxiation."

This caused Jane Sanders' heart to beat faster again.

"Asphyxiation? Like suffocation?"

"Yes, a form of a lack of air," Inspector Reese said. "But here's the odd thing. There were no hand marks or fingerprints found on your husband's neck. His windpipe also wasn't damaged, without any external contact whatsoever. Our forensics expert is now doing the test on chemical-"



But Jane had hung up. She was still processing the information.

She could imagine Hal, choking, clutching his neck, falling down the stairs...

Whoever Niki was going to deal with, had a power of his own!

Jane pulled out her handphone from her bag, the one which Micah had tampered with before Niki has awoken. The screen was flashing.

Jane pressed the button Micah told her to press, and a map immediately opened up on the screen. It showed a blinking red dot that had moved along an expressway, then after a while, had turned onto a road, then down a small squiggly line which Jane assumed was the map symbol for a lane or something.

The red dot had since stopped moving, and stopped blinking.

The house phone rang again.

Inspector Reese, Jane thought. What a name.

She grabbed the keys off the table, tucked the phone into her pants pocket, and took off at a trot out of the house, leaving the phone to ring to an empty house.




***************************************

Niki Sanders left the car, turning once to instruct Micah, "Don't leave the car."

"Mom!" Micah objected. "I want to help."

"You stay here. When we come out, I need the car to be ready to go," She said. "Can you do that?"

"I can't drive," Micah said, before realizing what she meant. "Oh."

"Good," Niki smiled, kissing her son's forehead and left at a fast jog into the warehouse.

Micah looked at the rear profile of her mother fading away, and he decided he couldn't do nothing. Once her mother rounded the corner, he opened the door and got down.




****************************************

Niki grabbed a large metal beam from the ground and crossed it over her chest, to arm herself. The main warehouse was surrounded by guards, patrolling in a circle that made it hard for anyone to sneak up and enter. Niki was surprised they couldn't see how conspicuous they looked, men in black circling one warehouse out of the tens in the yard.

She ducked low, and crossed the yard quickly.

One guard looked up, spotting her movements, and she swung the beam down hard before he could utter a word or do anything. The beam smashed across his face with a crack and knocked him hard against the warehouse wall, sending him down and out, but alive.

The guard that had been behind him drew a gun, and Niki rushed forward quickly. Before he could fire, she had smashed down hard on his wrist, surely breaking it and bending the beam by quite a bit.

He yelled out in pain.

The other guards rushed quickly to that side, all drawing guns and aiming them at her.

Niki felt an emotion she could clearly identify with this time. One called fear.



Without warning however, the unknown surge of energy and emotion bubbled up within her and took over that fear, and Niki felt her lose her grip on her body.

Then Jessica burst out, subduing Niki behind her body's shell, like a spectator at a Sox game that could watch the game from a large, full-sized screen, but couldn't call out for the snacks or move or yell or do anything otherwise... just watch.

And what a show it was.

Niki had seen her power of superhuman strength at work plenty of times, back when Jessica had complete and full control of her body, but this was different.

It was as if Jessica was released with a vengeance and fury like never before seen. She tore through all of the guards in less than five minutes, twisting and breaking limbs, and smashing heads against each other, and basically wiping the ground with the guards.

Niki felt her consciousness bubbling forward again, and soon she felt she could control her body once more.

"And that," replied Jessica from the shiny surface of a steel beam. "Is how you do it."

Mom was right, Niki admitted. Jessica knew how to put the fury to the force.



Niki ducked low to the entrance of the warehouse, but the doors were locked with a padlock and chain.

Niki reached down and yanked the entire lock, chains and all, from the door, splintering them into little chunks of metal.

When she opened the warehouse doors, she was shocked.

The interior of the warehouse did not store any rough goods, but instead, was a medical facility. Walls were lined with large cabinets and shelves that contained vials filled full with chemical liquid of all sorts. Doctors and men in black suits paced the entire room, walking around, looking busy.

In the centre of it all were three people.

One of them she had seen somewhere before, although she could not place her finger where. The woman was wearing a business power suit, looking like she belonged in a high-level meet with delegates from all over the world. The man in the middle she did not recognize, but the black man to the far right, however, caught her eye.

D.L.!



"What the-" A slightly pudgy man wearing a suit yelled out from next to the captive, but still powerful-looking woman.

The suit he was wearing was a completely different color from the black of everyone else's, and he had the aura of someone important around him.

He noticed her, then his eyes widened considerably.

"Nicole!" He cried.

With that, the entire range of black-suited men and white-robed doctors all stood back at once, backing away from the entrance as if she was bearing the plague.

"I want my husband back," she snarled.

The pudgy man smiled, stepping forward, while announcing, "Resume your work, everyone!"



The people all continued work, while they still glanced covertly at her.

"My name is Bob-" the man began, but Niki knocked him aside roughly, knocking the glasses from his face.

She stormed up to the long chairs the three 'subjects' were sitting on, like the ones used by dentists, and she saw D.L.'s hands were caught in a pair of handcuffs of a weird material.

"They're macro-lattice structures," Bob explained, somehow having caught up to her. "Your husband can walk through any molecular structure on this planet, except for macro-lattice, because the arrangement of their atoms is so precise that only-"

With one hard tug, Niki snapped both ringlets of the cuffs into bits.

The doctor that had been next to D.L. backed away quickly, fear flashing across his face.



"What are you doing?" Bob asked, his face clearly trying not to explode with anger.

"I am getting my husband out of here," Niki said, helping D.L. to his feet with little effort. D.L. looked like he was just waking up from a long nap, and drowsily hunched up.

"You cannot leave," Bob said angrily.

"Oh yeah?" Niki turned to face Bob with as equal amount of anger. "And why's that so? Why did you go after my mother, my father, just to get my husband? You didn't want me, or Jessica, you wanted D.L.!" As she spoke, her voice began to increase in volume. Everyone in a metre-radius of her began to back away. "Why is that so?"

"Niki, or Jessica, or whoever you are right now," Bob said calmly. "You do not understand. If you take D.L. now, he will die. And not only that, he will infect you too, and infect Micah most likely, because-"

"Bull," Niki said through gritted teeth. "I don't care what he is, you can't take him."

She shifted D.L.'s weight to one arm, and with further snaps of her free hand, she broke off the cuffs of the two adjoining people that were next to D.L.

"You will not let them go until we inject them with the cure," Bob said. "None of these three can leave, if not they will infect everyone."

"I don't care," Niki said, and she began to walk out of the warehouse.



Bob's face briefly flashed hatred and a vicious fury.

"Get her!" He yelled.

None of the black men moved from their places, all apparently well-aware of what Niki/Jessica could do.

But one man stepped forward, brave, seemingly as he was. He smiled, and then narrowed his eyes.

Niki felt as though her throat had been pinched together. All of a sudden, air was cut off from her windpipes, and she felt her windpipes trying furiously to obtain oxygen, of her nostrils desperately trying to take in air, but she felt none enter her nose.

She choked, doubling over, and D.L., unable to support his own weight, stumbled to the floor, and collapsed.

The man in black who had stood out from the rest, who had did that, stepped so forward that he was only a few feet away from Niki.

He towered over her, his relentless gaze still upon her, giving her little bits of air at a time, but not enough for her to get out of panic mode, yet not enough for her to fall unconscious or die.

Bob made a motion, and more men rushed forward to surround D.L.

"Keep her there," Bob said, looking disdainfully at the struggling woman on the ground who was wildly trying to garner air from her surrounding atmosphere. "We may have to quarantine her, too."

Part 6 of 7


Jane Sanders drummed impatiently on her knees. She was nervous, and it was showing. She was staring out of the window, wondering how on Earth she was going to help Niki when it came down to a fight.

The cab driver noticed it, and looked in the rearview mirror at her.

"Hey, ma'am, you okay?"

"Yeah, yeah," Jane replied half-heartedly. She wasn't one to get into a fight, especially with other super-powered individuals like her, Niki, Jessica and D.L., but she had no choice.

This was how the Sanders family rolled. And she decided that if nothing, she was going to right the wrong she did twenty years ago.

The cab pulled up to the warehouse rows. The driver turned back and nodded. "Here you go, ma'am."

Jane nodded mutely, and looked at her surroundings.



*****************************************

Niki was awake. She had never fallen into any form of sleep or rest. She was strapped down in a large pod-like case, controlled by a humming machine.

One that was apparently, impervious to her reserves of strength. She slowly fumed, glaring at the man in black who was standing on the 2nd level of the warehouse, looking down at everything. That man who could choke her to death in minutes if he wanted to.

Niki looked at the machine, and the screen was showing a number, followed by a J at the back. Simple scientific knowledge told her that the machine was designed to exert a number of Joules of energy on her, holding her down and preventing her from breaking the pod because she just wasn't strong enough to overcome that much force.



As she stared at the screen showing the number of Joules that was holding her down, Jessica's face smiled sinisterly back at her.

"Let me out," she said simply.

"No," Niki said flatly. "You'll go crazy and wreck this place."

"Isn't that what you want?" Jessica asked.

"No. I want to rescue my husband and get out of here," Niki said. "These guys aren't bad. Not at least until they kill someone."

"You don't care," Jessica said. "That's your thing, you see, sis." She shook her head slowly, sadly. "You don't care about others. You don't care about anything but yourself."

"That's not true," Niki said through gritted teeth. "I care about people. I care about my family."

"Even that's pushing it too thin," Jessica said sardonically. "You only care about D.L. and Micah, to be precise. When Hal died, you didn't care. You really just were going out of necessity. Not that I'm complaining, because I don't care about him either, but you don't care about Mom, about the greater good of us."

"Us?" Niki laughed. "You mean, me and you?"

"I mean, about everyone," Jessica hissed. "I know your emotions, sister. I feel them. You know what that Bob, that creep, what he's saying is true, but you don't care because you don't care about the rest of humanity, only about Micah and D.L., and yourself. All about you."

"I'm no hero," Niki said. "I'm not some superhero or something. I have a job, remember? On the Internet? I have a life, remember? I have -"

"You, you, you," Jessica sighed. "It's always about you. Our mom wanted to be safe, wanted to come with you to Las Vegas, but you, you were scared only for yourself. You didn't want her to be butting in either, so you tried to shake her off."

Niki closed her mouth. What Jessica was saying was...

"The truth," Jessica said simply. "I'm speaking the truth. Why am I here, Niki? Why am I in your life?"

Niki refused to even look at her in the reflection.

"Because you needed me," Jessica replied. "You needed me to balance out all your emotions. All your screwed emotions, all your wrong reasons. You needed me to be your good half."

"No, I'm the good half," Niki said, her fury building steadily. "I'm the one that doesn't tear people in two, that doesn't fight and kill and - "

"That's why," Jessica said, smiling her cocky grin again. "If you'd just fight, if you'd just stop running, and thinking about yourself all the freakin' time..."



The sight of Micah standing behind the machine snapped Niki's attention away from Jessica.

"Micah!" Niki whispered, glancing to the 2nd level of the warehouse. Mr. Suffocation was not there anymore.

"Mom," Micah whispered back, placing one hand on the pressure machine. "Where's Dad?"

Niki nodded across the room, where D.L. was being surrounded by a entire posse of white-robed doctors and analysts.

Suddenly she felt the pressure lighten up off her body. She felt her chest rising and falling easily now with every breath. She realized Micah had used his power to disable the machine!

With one powerful exertion of force, Niki shattered the pod into thousands of tiny fragments.

"Hide in the shadows," Niki instructed Micah. "I'm going to rescue Daddy." Micah nodded and ran behind a pillar.



The guards started rushing to her, and the doctors started backing away as one from D.L. Everyone started running around, trying to subdue Niki.

She looked at the machine screen, where Jessica nodded.

"Be with me," Niki said with a tiny smile.

The guards rushed at her, but Niki channelled her boiling anger and she smashed into the first man that even dared to cross her path.

Of course she didn't kill. She wouldn't. She just gave them a good enough knockout to ensure it would hurt the next morning.

The next guard made the mistake of grabbing her arm. She flung him through another machine.

Another pulled out his gun.

"NO bullets here, fool!" Bob yelled from somewhere to the far left. "You'll destroy the equipment!"

Aha, Niki thought. A level-playing field.



Suddenly, she felt her throat begin to tighten.

She cursed while she still could. That man again.

The man slowly walked from her right toward her, his hand now outstretched, in a circular claw-like shape, like he was gripping her neck.

He slowly wiggled his fingers, and Niki felt her lungs constrict too.

What is the extent of this fellow's power? Niki thought, rather annoyedly.

She turned her head with great effort, looking hatefully into the man's eyes, who were hidden behind cool shades. He smiled, and took a step forward.

Suddenly, his body stiffened, and Niki could see his muscles tense up. He was suddenly stuck in that position, his hand outstretched like he was holding up a mug to offer cheers, while the rest of his body stayed rooted to the ground, one foot in front of the other. He looked rather odd.

The difference? Niki could breathe again.



"Grandma!" Micah cried from behind the pillar, giving away his position.

Niki looked behind the man, and there she was. Jane Sanders, in all her glory, focusing her energy onto Mr. Suffocation, beads of sweat already squeezing out from her pores due to her effort in utilizing her power.

"The son's here!" One doctor yelled.

"You're not getting him!" Niki yelled. "We're all here now! If you want to fight, you'll have to fight us all!"

Bob walked forward, shaking his head. "Stop this right now, Niki or Jessica-"

"Niki," Niki clarified. "I want you to let my husband go."

"That's fine by me," Bob said. "As long as you do not get him within the vicinity of your son or your mother," He replied. "Your husband has a virus, Niki, and I was never lying to you about that." He handed her a file. "This virus affects only evolved humans, Niki, like you and I, and your mother, and your son, and your husband, and your sister, and all of them out there."

"What about you?" Niki demanded.

"Niki," Bob smiled. "You don't have to worry about me. A few of us, less than ten now, regrettably, have immunity to this disease. We have tried to culture antibodies for a cure, and some have worked," He looked at Mr. Suffocation, who was still not moving an inch, held in check by Jane Sanders.

"Some," he said with a nod to the file. "Haven't worked as well."

"But my husband?" Niki asked.

"We don't know yet," Bob replied. "Our antibodies don't work on everyone. But we know more people out there with the same immunity, for example, a professor of genetics in India-"

Niki had a brief memory flash of a young Indian-American man, handsome but with a grudging, jaded look in his eyes.

"Your husband hasn't shown defense against the disease yet, and we will need to keep him here longer-"

"Out of the question," Niki said, and she thought she heard Jessica's laughter somewhere off.

"That's fine with us," Bob said. "We have had the time to culture the antibodies in his blood. We can let him go now, provided that you do not let him near any other evolved individuals. We will not know whether your husband's body will recognize the antibodies and proceed to manufacture some of their own, but since you're so adamant about him returning-"

"Any risk is mine to take," Niki said with a note of finality, taking the file from Bob.

"Very well," Bob replied, nodding with a rather pleased look on his face. "I thank you for your cooperation, Miss Sanders."

Niki only briefly noticed the change in formality of her address, and she said. "Why kill my father just to take D.L.? Why couldn't you have mentioned at least a meeting? We could have-"

Bob laughed. "I didn't kill your father," He looked at Mr. Suffocation with amusement. "As for the kidnapping, well, we needed D.L., but we didn't think you'd be receptive to us experimenting on your husband. You have been known, after all," he said, giving a morose glance at the destroyed machines around the facility. "To be extremely protective of your family."

He walked away, nodding at the doctors. "Release him."



Jane looked at Niki, who nodded. Jane closed her eyes, and Mr. Suffocation stumbled forward, crashing into the floor at Niki's feet.

Niki bent down, and snatched up a collar of Mr. Suffocation. "Why did you kill my dad?"

"That irritating piece of-" Mr. Suffocation growled. "He didn't know where your husband was, fair enough, but he still demanded us to compensate him for wasting his time, and he wanted to call the police because we had entered his house..."

He shrugged. "I didn't think it would be a loss."

Niki felt the emotion this time. One of strong annoyance, anger and sadness. The feelings were back, and stronger than ever, and she had never been happier to feel more human.

Niki raised a fist, and took him out cold.

Jane sighed. "Let's go, Niki."



Niki went over to the holding chairs, and supported D.L. to his feet once again. As usual, everyone was giving her a wide berth, afraid of getting in her way and getting thrown several feet into the air.

She supported D.L. all the way out of the warehouse, Jane holding Micah close and away from D.L. Her mother was taking it seriously.

Niki helped D.L. into the front passenger seat in the car. "Mom, you take a cab and take Micah back to your place. I'll drive to Las Vegas."

"What?" Jane Sanders was shocked. "You'll do no such thing! Las Vegas is not near, honey! You need to stay!"

"If what Bob said was true, then I can't take that chance," Niki said. "I'll drive D.L. back to our place, drop him off, then drive back to pick Micah up."

Jane Sanders seemed to ponder this plan, then realized her daughter's mind was made up and nothing she said could possibly change Niki's mind.

"Okay," Jane said, slightly defeated. "Make sure you top up the gas."



Niki laughed. "I will, Mom."

"Will my house be safe?" Jane asked. "Can we go and ask them-"

"Grandma," Micah piped in. "You have a power! You can stop any bad guys anytime!"

Jane laughed. "I guess I can, eh, sugar pie?"

She held onto Micah's hand and they began walking back out to the main road to hitch a cab. "Well," Jane told Micah. "I was expecting the fight to last longer."



"It was long enough," D.L. choked, watching them leave.

"D.L.!" Niki smiled, getting into the driver's seat and kissing her husband on the lips. "Nice to have you back, baby."

"Seen what you can do, baby," D.L. reciprocated. "Nice work."

"I learn from the best," Niki smiled at D.L. and he choked out a laugh.

Niki revved up the engine and tweaked the rearview mirror.

Jessica was there, staring at her."What, I'm not the best?"

"No," Niki said matter-of-factly.

"Well, to that guy's credit," Jessica replied with a tinge of satisfied pleasure. "He was right. It wasn't all that a loss."

Part 7 of 7


When Jessica Sanders died, Jane Sanders did nothing to stop the police from intervening and preventing her from taking full custodial rights. She was sad, angry, frightened and confused all at once, during those tumultuous times.

If anything, Linderman's hand in the whole situation caused the police to nearly deliver Jessica's body to Linderman straight, if not for Jane going to the morgue at twelve midnight one night, deciding enough was enough, just to 'paralyze' the police officers there and make away with her daughter's body.

Niki Sanders never knew that. But that dream, the one she had two nights after rescuing D.L., the one she believed Jessica let her see, made her understand her mother in ways she never knew. Her mother singlehandedly rescued Niki's twin sister from police officers 'affected' by Linderman's power.

Niki realized her mother wasn't as weak as she had thought.

Jessica was right. Niki needed to see that family, if anything, was the only thing.

The only thing that could save the world, once again.



D.L.'s scream woke her from her dream, the dream of Jessica, the dream of Niki, the dream of the world and its many powers, its many heroes, and its many wonders.

"D.L.!" Niki cried, as D.L. Hawkins writhed on the bed, his body painfully wracked by spasms and muscle twitches.

Bob's smiling face popped in suddenly in her mind's eyes, out of nowhere, and begun sighing excessively.

"Mom? Dad?" Micah asked, and Niki saw the doorknob twist.

"Micah! Stay in your room!" Niki cried, remembering Bob's instructions. "Don't come out! Your daddy's not feeling well!"

"What's going on?" Micah asked from behind the door.

"I'm going to take your daddy to the hospital, okay?" Niki cried. "Go back to your room now!"



Niki heard Micah's shuffling and the door slamming, and then she focused her attention back to her husband.

"D.L., hang in there," Niki said, wondering what the hell was she going to do.

D.L. coughed and choked, and cold sweat began streaming down his face in rivulets.

Niki ran to the bathroom, poured a glass of water from the tap, and as she turned to leave, Jessica called out to her.

"Niki," Jessica called. Niki turned briefly.

"Take him to Bob," Jessica suggested.

"No," Niki shook her head. "I'm taking him to the hospital."

"You know what D.L. has can't be cured by doctors," Jessica advised. Niki knew that too, but the sight of Bob's face, smiling with that knowing look, was too much for her to bear.



Niki rushed back to her husband's side, and tried to feed him the water.

D.L. swallowed down a bit of the liquid before coughing most of it back up.

"Darn it, D.L!" Niki cried. "You survived a bullet! Survive this!"

D.L. opened his eyes, and looked at her with weak amusement.

For the past two days, he seemed to be all right.

But now, it seemed that everything had taken a turn for the worse, and too fast for her to handle.

Niki knew she had to do something. A hospital, at least, would be able to have the facilities to stop D.L.'s spasms, temporarily, though she knew Jessica was right in the long-term.



Niki lifted D.L. up with her bare hands, focusing all her energy on tapping into her power.

She banged her shoulder against the door, causing the entire door to unhinge and swing back, held only by the doorknob instead. Her strength was coming in super handy.

She headed out to the car, and opened the door somehow. She then set D.L. gently on the passenger seat, where he began a whole new coughing fit.

Her heart sank when she saw how pale he looked.

Then, looking into the side mirror, Jessica was there, and she cocked her head back at the house.

Niki nodded, and hurried back in.



Moments later, she re-emerged, holding the file Bob had given her back in the warehouse. D.L. was now either sleeping or unconscious, but it was clear something was not right.

Niki rushed into the car, revved up the engine, and prepared to head to the nearest hospital in Las Vegas.

A slip of paper fell out from the file, one which Niki didn't see because she never opened the file since it came into her possession two days ago.

As Niki drove, she reached down and found the paper near the accelerator.

Lifting it up to read it in the darkness, she saw that there was a phone number written there, in sprawling, bold lettering, and a small sentence of words.

"Call me," Bob's face popped out in her head again, smiling that sleazy-looking, yet smart/cocky grin. "He's not going to make it, and neither are you," Bob told her in her mind's eye. "Call me."

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