How you tick (Sylar and Othala)

Sylar had wanted a challenge to pit his skills against, someone with an ability that no one else would be able to take down. To do this he had looked in the database of The Company and found the files on some of the missing prisoners. Specifically, he selected those in the folder labelled, rather pessimistically, as "impossible".

Oh he liked the sound of that.

Something impossible to the like of Noah Bennett would be perfect for the likes of him! He would be able to capture these people and there would be no doubt in anyone's mind that Sylar had managed to control his Hunger enough to become a refined hunter, tracker and, if needs be, killer.

But inside the folder had only been two names.

Stephen Canfield was already dead, which was a shame considering how powerful his ability was and how much Sylar wanted it for himself. But the other... Othala...

Well that was why he was here at some back-water motel in the middle of Texas. The area had been experiencing very extreme weather for it's location... gale force winds... golf ball sized hail at one point... oh she was here. Sylar knew that much.

Dressed smartly in his suit, Sylar looked around the motel, feeling the power in the air. Following it, almost instinctively, he reached a door and knocked on it,

"Excuse me miss..." he called out with a small smirk, "Just wondering if I could ask you a few questions..."

Othala had been hiding out in a motel far away from her cosy little flat that she had been occupying, why had she been hiding out in a motel? Well...she didn't want to be one of the one people responsible for creating a very new tornado alley in Texas. There had been so many odd things that had been going on around her, she knew she had caused them but she didn't know how she had done it!

All she wanted to know was how she had done those things so she could stop them from happening again! Othala didn't want to hurt anybody and she was pretty sure she had killed people from what she had done, those hail stones came down pretty hard, and pretty fast when she had been angered the other day.

For now she thought that the best solution was not to get too emotional...which was easier said than done when she was in this sort of condition. Dabbing at her eyes, she cursed a little bit when she realised that she had created an almost monsoon level of rainstorm outside the motel, as soon as she was distracted by the knock though, Othala blinked and the rain stopped.

Getting up off the bed she wandered slowly towards the door, her eyes still stinging a little bit from all of the crying she had been doing. Gently she opened it and blinked when she saw the man standing in the doorway, dressed in a suit...oh dear...maybe she should not have answered the door.

"Y-yes?" she sniffled, rubbing at her eyes again "Who are you? Can I see some ID or something before you start asking me questions?"

The rain was sudden and it was fierce... and it was the middle of summer in Texas. Oh yeah, Sylar was definitely in the right place. His suit was drenched within seconds and his hair flattened against his head as he waited for her to answer the door. He was tempted to just kick it in and fight her but if he could get by without any force... well then he'd be an amazing hunter wouldn't he? How good a hunter must he be if he didn't even have to use force after all?

When she opened the door Sylar blinked a little bit, taken off guard by a couple of things about her appearance. For one thing the photo on the file must have been at least 4 years out of date because she really had blossomed into a truly beautiful woman. The other thing was that she had, very obviously, been crying. He smiled professionally and reached into his jacket, pulling out a fake FBI badge that he'd had made,

"Hi there Miss, I'm agent Dean Winchester of the FBI." he told her, holding his badge up for her inspection before putting it away, "I'd like to ask you a few questions about all this odd weather we've been having recently... may I come in for a moment please? I got caught out in the rain and I'd appreciate the chance to dry off a little."

Othala tilted her head to one side when the man took out his badge and showed her it, having never seen an FBI badge before she thought that it looked legitimate and smiled softly. Of course she knew what it was that he was coming in to talk to her about and she didn't know whether to be upfront with the man or whether she should keep it quiet...

Keeping it quiet might be a good thing until she found out what it was he would do with her if it was in fact her making the weather go bizzare, which she was.

The fact that he was now completely soaked because of what she had pulled back there made Othala a little bit mad at herself, even though it was hardly the worst thing in the world what would have happened if he had ruined his cellphone, or had his iPod destroyed by her little monsoon stunt back there?

"Um okay, please do come in." she smiled lightly, opening the door a little wider to show the mostly tidy motel room she had been living in "If you like you can take off your jacket and put it on the heater to dry it off, the weather has been a little crazy around here recently."

As soon as Dean had stepped inside, Othala shut the door behind him and locked it; "So...what questions did you want to ask me about this strange weather?"

Sylar had to admit that she was rather good with her little innocent act. If he didn't already know that she possessed the power then he would have thought she was just another innocent woman who was in the wrong place. But no... no she was different. His new ability to detect lies hadn't gone off yet but that was because he hadn't asked her any direct questions that she could lie to. She was just trying to guide him into believing her innocent act.

She was good but she wasn't that good.

Smiling in a disarming manner, he nodded graciously to her and entered the room. At her suggestion that he take his jacket and put it on the heater, he smiled a little bit wider at her, almost turning it into a smirk as he did so,

"Why thank you miss..." he tilted his head to the side slightly as he smirked a little bit, looking into her eyes, "What was your name again Miss?"

When she asked him what questions he would be asking about the weather, he smiled a little bit again as he spread his arms out in a casual gesture,

"Oh you know, just the usual." he said with a smile before it turned into a smirk, "Like when did you discover you had the ability to create natural disasters?"

Othala thought that this man was more than a little bit too good to be true, he was so handsome and seemed so calm and collected...there had to be a catch here. Like maybe he was here to take her away to some secret Government facility like so many other people around here, they had all been taken away in the middle of the night and never heard from again!

Oh my god was this what happened?! Her panic mode was fully installed as Othala thought about all of the things that could happen during the course of this conversation.

"Uhm...you came to ask me questions all the way out here in a motel but you don't know my name?" she asked, a little bit shocked "Well it's Othala, Othala Thormund."

Sitting down on the bed, Othala waited to hear what he was going to say about the weather that had been going on, all the time she was wondering if it was really going to pan out the way that she thought it would do when Dean had first entered the room. Now, she definitely thought that it was a bad idea to open the door.

As soon as she heard his question, Othala's mouth popped open and she almost squeaked; "W-what? N-no there must be some mistake!" she protested "I never meant to do any of those things that happened, they just appeared without me wanting them to I didn't create anything!"

Biting her lip she thought she could feel the pricking of tears in the corner of her eyes start again; "You have to believe me that I never wanted anyone to get hurt..."

Sylar had to admit that he was having fun playing the part of an FBI agent by the name of Dean Winchester... it might just become his favourite disguise if he wanted to keep doing this whole 'subtle' approach. To be honest it seemed to be the right way to go because there seemed to be no problems approaching her this way - she had actually let him right into her motel room after all! Ah the wonders of human trust.

He smiled a little bit. Already she was showing the signs of having a guilty conscience and it was clear to him why she had it,

"Well Miss Thormund I came out here to investigate the weather..." he told her with another disarming smirk, "Not specifically you, but everyone in the area. Funny you would think I was here specifically for you..."

Oh the surprise on her face made it all worth it to Sylar!

Smirking a little bit, he felt the lie detector ability go off when she said that there was a mistake. She had been the cause of the weather. Whether she had decided to do so or not was irrelevant. He shook his head a little bit and reached up to adjust his tie a little bit, noting that she seemed to have been moved to tears. Smiling faintly, he held up a hand,

"Oh I believe that you didn't want anyone to get hurt Miss Thormund, I believe you." he told her honestly, "But the fact is... some of us have very dangerous abilities. I myself have one dangerous ability... that has let me collect many more."

Electricity began to dance across his hand and he smirked a little bit as it just barely tickled his skin. He looked up into her eyes as he cut the power off,

"So Miss Thormund... how about you tell me more about your ability? How it seems to occur without your consent?"

Othala couldn't help but blush softly thinking that she could have been tricked by Dean, she didn't think that she tripped up there, after all she was pretty sure that FBI agents didn't come out into the middle of the desert to look up and talk to everyone who was a guest at a random sleazy motel that happened to be in the catchment area.

"Oh no...I was just thinking it was a little bit odd...do FBI agents often come to motels to check their visitors for information as well?" she asked with a small smile "And I'm sure you would have checked the guest list with the Owner...otherwise, well, how would you know which rooms were occupied and which weren't? I didn't hear you knock on anyone elses door..."

Now it was her turn to smirk a little bit, and Othala did so, happy that she could be so smart and at least attempt to knock this guy down a few pegs, he was really making her a little bit uncomfortable now. He knew who she was, and he knew that she had powers and was responsible for what was happening around here.

As he held up his hand to her, Othala blinked softly and tried to stop herself from crying. Although, the fact that he had powers like her, dangerous powers, made Othala feel a little bit more reassured, but the power he did have, freaked her out very much and she tried to keep herself calm, no tornadoes here today...nope.

"Uhm...uhm...uhm..." she squeaked "I would rather not because then you're going to do freaky things and take my power away! I...I..."

Closing her eyes Othala gasped softly when she felt the room around her beginning to shake, it was responding to her emotions again!; "Oh no not again." she complained, covering her head with her arms as she sat on the bed, to brace herself in case some tiles fell from the ceiling, but, it seemed to stop soon enough.

Sylar raised an eyebrow when she questioned the validity of his disguise but otherwise paid it no mind, not now that it was all coming out into the open as it was. Taking his fake FBI badge, he peeled off some parts of it to reveal his true name written on the badge,

"As you have probably figured out by my powers... I am not an agent of the FBI. Much less Dean Winchester." he told her with a small smirk, "My name is Gabriel Sylar... but please, call me Sylar."

He tilted his head to the side slightly and watched, a frown of concentration on his face, as she seemed to panic before the entire room began to shake. Finding sure footing, his only original ability seemed to kick in immediately but it was hardly a hard conclusion to come to given the time between the incident and her emotional outburst,

"I see... Othala listen to me." he urged her in a softer voice than he had used before, "You may have guessed that your abilities are reacting to your emotions. You become stressed or angry and they react accordingly. What my agency can do is help you to control your emotions, and your abilities."

Left unsaid was the fact that if she failed to do this she would be killed and her ability harvested to see if it could be introduced into some of the troops that Arthur was planning to empower. For some reason, some unknowable reason, Sylar didn't want that to happen to her. Having taken the ability of empathy from Peter just by being around him for a long time, he could feel her swirling emotions and he gently reached out and touched her shoulder, taking some of her panic and stress into himself, flinching as he did so,

"It's alright Othala... you can control it." he assured her, "It doesn't control you."

Othala was a little bit panicked right now to be taking in a lot of information, it seemed like the more she thought about what this man could do to her the worse the room was beginning to shake. She knew that she needed to calm down in order to stop the earthquake, and she needed to calm down soon, but Othala was just to nervous, so scared about what might happen that she didn't think that was going to be possible!

Squeezing her eyes tight shut, she picked up on what Gabriel was trying to say, and she attempted to take deep breaths in and out, calming herself down as she did so. It was slow, and long but eventually she got her thoughts onto something else, something that wasn't so terrifying and when Gabriel touched her, she felt most of her emotions draining away a little bit.

The belief that he had in her might have come from the fact he didn't want to fall down a big crack in the Earth but Othala was comforted by the way that Gabriel was attempting to reassure her, and soon after the shaking stopped altogether.

Opening her eyes slowly she blinked seeing that the room now had a few great big ass cracks running through the walls and the light was blinking on and off.

"Oh no...not again." she sighed softly "I just feel so bad ruining everybody's stuff all the time...hurting people is the last thing I want to do so...you were saying something about an agency? Did they help you control your dangerous power?" Othala asked, very slowly uncurling from the brace position she had adopted "Because if that is the case...maybe I would like to hear more about it, I'd be interested in learning to control mine too."

Sylar didn't really like to use his empathy power as it made him very open to the emotions of others and right now she had a massive overload of emotions that she was trying to give to someone, anyone, in order to help deal with it. To be honest though, taking some of the more powerful emotions from her wasn't all that taxing on Sylar considering he had to suppress the Hunger on a daily basis.

The destruction around them did kind of make him a little bit envious if he was honest. Why wouldn't he be? She had such massive power at her fingertips! But at the same time, he honestly didn't want anything to do with the power. He had enough trouble controlling all of his current powers and adding more. And all of the ones he had were stable powers, adding her's to the mix would likely overload him to the point of going nuclear.

And he'd avoided that the first time round, he didn't really want to have to avoid it again,

"It's alright, the agency or Company that I work for can pay to have it all replaced and completely anonymously." he assured her with a small smirk, a soft smirk, before shaking his head a little bit, "Well I learnt how to control mine on my own... and unfortunately the agency has little patience for people who do not control it themselves. So, we shall work on your control before you get there, so you'll be accepted as a valuable asset."

Othala blinked softly when she was told about the Company that Gabriel worked for, she didn't think that it would be that great of a place to work for if they didn't let you make a few slip ups now and again. The fact that she wasn't even out of College yet should say that she most definitely did not have the experience needed to be up to something like that...

It also all sounded a little bit...off to her.

"I guess that's better than just running away and coming back a few months later to check if they managed to fix the damage on their own." she laughed softly "But don't they have better things to do with their money than that?"

As soon as she heard that the 'Company' wouldn't have patience for her if she couldn't control her powers, Othala got a little nervous again and she hoped that she would be able to calm herself down before she got into any more trouble. It was amazing that someone hadn't come to check whether they were alright yet.

"So...you are going to teach me how to control my powers yourself?" Othala asked, a little bit overwhelmed "Are you sure that you want to I mean...sometimes it can get a little bit dicey. Especially if I'm going to be practicing with all the types of weather changing I can do, there are some that could like...rip you to pieces and I wouldn't want to do that."

Smiling softly up at Gabriel, Othala hugged her knees to her chest; "You seem like a nice guy, underneath all the smirking."

Sylar, in hindsight, realised that the Company was a terrible place to work if you were just beginning to understand your powers. Especially when they made it very clear that they had either a cell or a bullet waiting with your name. It was a harsh environment but Arthur, his father, had assured him that it was for the best. That people thrived under stressed conditions, especially people with powers. And while he had said that, Sylar could detect no lies in the man,

"Well not really to be honest." he told her with a little chuckle, "Their main duty is to make sure that the non-powered do not discover that we exist. After that their main duty... is to prepare the world for a time when we will be able to reveal ourselves."

Feeling her nervousness radiating through the empathy he was still using, Sylar took it away from her, drawing it into himself. The effect was that she would feel more relaxed about it but he would end up very much nervous for her. He nodded when she asked if he would help her to control her powers,

"Yes, I shall teach you how to control your powers until you've got it mastered." he told her honestly before laughing a little bit, "I'm sure you could rip others apart... but the thing about me is that I would just heal back together."

Sylar dragged the armchair closer to the bed and sat down in it. For some reason being called a nice guy made a heavy weight drop into his stomach. The truth was that he was a disgusting human people and he knew it. He was a serial killer after all. And being called nice... it made him feel incredibly guilty,

"I'm not that nice to most people." he admitted with a sigh, "I'm usually the last person in the world someone with powers wants to meet."

Othala thought that it was probably a good idea that she was going to learn how to control her powers, after all some of the things that she did...well in fact all of the things that she did were very noticeable. For a group that didn't want people with powers to be noticed, it was probably not a very good thing that she was out on the loose drawing attention to them left right and center.

The idea that there would be a time they could reveal themselves made Othala a little bit happier, she wanted to be able to walk around like nothing was wrong with her again, to know that it wasn't about to start raining fireballs because someone spilt coffee on her.

"I like the idea that we would be able to reveal ourselves one day...I mean I'm already pretty obvious I get that so...I doubt I'll be able to live like a normal person until I have this down. Maybe not even until we're all equals, if that ever happens." she sighed, flipping onto her back so that she could stare up at the ceiling.

Hearing one of Gabriel's powers made Othala flip onto her front again and she grinned; "You can heal yourself back together? Wow how awesome is that? What else can you do?"

Unable to stop herself frowning when Gabriel said that he wasn't nice to most people, Othala reached her hand over the bed and squeezed his own lightly. It might be true what he said, given the way he had acted before but, she was still alive, and she was very thankful for that fact now;

"Well you are being perfectly nice to me, so I didn't mind meeting you at all." she smiled gently "Who knows maybe it was fated we were supposed to meet, you are meant to help me control my powers, and I am meant to help make you a nicer guy. Its just a hunch of course."

Sylar had never had a problem controlling the abilities he had gained through his primary ability, since his primary ability was to know how things worked, but his primary ability was what needed to be controlled. How annoying and how maddening would it be to be bombarded with information about how things work from everything you could see? How a tree photosynthesised down to how an airborne spore would germinate... it required constant control.

The subject of them revealing themselves was a bit of a touchy one for Sylar he admitted. He had a deep rooted belief that those with powers were better than those without and so when people talked about revealing themselves to gain equality, he scoffed. Why should they lower themselves to be equal with beings clearly below them? He nodded a little bit,

"I too want the day to arrive when I can walk down the street and casually use my powers without causing a riot." he admitted before chuckling a little bit darkly, "Though why we should be equal when we're clearly superior, I do not know..."

He smirked a little bit and bite the fleshy part of his thumb, causing blood to well up there. By the time he wiped the blood away his skin was smooth and flawless again, perfectly healed,

"Yes... I picked up this ability." he admitted, "Lets me heal from any injury as long as one part of my body remains intact."

Feeling someone trying to reassure him was... strange to say the least. But he loved the feeling of her hand on his regardless. He smiled back at her a little bit on the small side before he patted her hand and nodded, pulling himself out of his little pity party,

"Perhaps fate has had a hand in our meeting." he agreed with a grin before clapping his hands, "Now... when did you first realise you had these powers? What happened?"

Othala didn't want to hear that there were prejudices about even when the people with abilities were still having to hide from ordinary people, Gabriel was creating a whole new level of racism that they didn't need to get caught up in right now. Although, she had to admit that he did have a point, if it was a whole superhero deal, the superheroes were so much better because they had powers, but only because they used them for good.

Otherwise they would be evil villains and they wouldn't be better than normal humans at all, they were worse in fact!

"I think it's called walking before we run." she stated with a soft smile "People are more likely to accept us if we don't charge in with the whole Nazi take over thing first." Othala teased gently.

As she saw the ability that Gabriel was talking about in action, she couldn't help but gawp a little bit. Oh it was so much cooler than her power and so much more useful as well. There was no justice in the world that she had to get stuck with this horrible power and he got all of this healing mumbo jumbo.

"That is so unfair, I would swap with you if I could. I mean your power is cooler than mine, I'm just like Storm from the X Men only I can do slightly more things." she sighed, with a small pout on her lips as she crossed her arms.

Obviously Gabriel did not like the whole reassurance thing, so Othala would be sure not to do that any more, it made the atmosphere kind of awkward for a second there, before she took up answering the other question that he posed to her, the one about when her powers first started to manifest themselves.

"Well, it was a few weeks ago...my boyfriend decided to break up with me, in a rather spectacular fashion in front of his 'new' girlfriend...the next thing I know there's a tornado forming like 3 miles away and we all had to take shelter in this guys basement."