Hero Trek Confusion and Deadending

John X Doe 7 Hero Trek Confusion and Deadending

Author, Tohonomike tohonomike@msn.com
Disclaimer, “All characters belong to their rightful owners...it will start off with the Joss/ME characters, and any other characters or real-life folks are clearly not mine. NO money is involved. None are mine. I do not own the characters or any rights to the television show The Sentinel. They were created by Danny Bilson and Paul DeMeo and belong to them, Pet Fly Productions, UPN, and Paramount.

Tim Kring and NBC are the owners and such of ‘Heroes’

Due to his less-than-solid financial position, Dr. Suresh had been willing to pay for gas and lodging when Karen insisted on taking John’s car to New York; with gas prices so high, John simply told them he’d cover it, and that he and Suresh could discuss genetics while Karen shared in the driving. The girl had been thrilled, though it meant thaSuresh took advantage of the trip to make stops in Los Angeles, Las Vegas, and Odessa, Texas.

In LA, they’d been unable to track down the man with radiation poisoning, but left a message with his sick wife. In Las Vegas, the man Chandra Suresh sought had just been incarcerated on suspicion of robbery and murder—obviously another Gabriel he did not need to interact with so soon.

John and Karen had accompanied him, the young woman placing the convict’s wife at ease as John allowed the boy—Micah—to help him with his email and computer. After a pleasant but disappointing question and answer session lasting a couple of hours, and the boy had hadn’t wanted John to leave—it was seldom anyone came close to his level, especially learning so fast. John had left his email with ‘Nikki’ in case Micah needed a fellow ‘computer whiz’ to talk to.

Now they were eating in a diner in Midland, Texas after an interview with the father of a prospective Claire Bennett had agreed to consider matters for a while.

“So, Professor,” John asked as he accepted pie from the pleasant young waitress of the Burnt Toast Diner, “Anybody else on the list?”

“Not for this trip, I’m afraid. But I must thank both of you for your patience and assistance once again.”

“No problem,” the Karen assured him. “I think John’s been able to loosen up and maybe find some of his normal personality—it was worth that just by itself to watch him eat that two-pack of Twinkies.”

“And John can die happy since you let him detour us to Roswell,” Karen smiled freely with a twinkle in her eye. “He seemed to have just as much fun with the ‘what ifs’ and the debunking.”

“It was my pleasure, and you did permit me in turn to divert us to Carlsbad Caverns,” the academic countered happily. “But now we must hurry back. I have my taxi route to get back to—” he held up his hands to ward off a now-rote argument “again, it is to slow my financial outlays at a time I am familiar in using for walks to clear my mind, children—friends. Once I’ve had a chance to ensure all of my contacts are aware of my relocation and loose ends are cleared up, I’ll be ready.”

“Okay, Professor,” John replied, and leaned back as Charlie the waitress was with the help of an oriental-looking busboy carrying to the kitchen a car battery used to help jump a patron’s automobile. He spilled water as he slipped from the chair, the terminals and different hands grasped for purchase on anything. All three were shocked, and the moment seemed to halt painfully for a minute before normal time and space resumed. “Ahhhh!”

Lynette and others in the diner hurried over and helped all three; John apologized in Japanese and English, mixed, as did the other two. None of them noticed this as unusual until as the three customers were leaving Karen mentioned it.

“Hey, John? When did you learn Japanese?”

“What? I don’t—huh. Must be something I picked up somewhere?”

She shook her head and let it drop as unimportant.

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

The next couple of months went by rather quickly, with John associating so much with the Professor, and learning from him, that the two became close in a mentor-protégé manner; it was difficult to determine which was which at some times. John over that time showed remarkable aptitude, not just knowledge, and a stunning mastery of Suresh’s material that the academician found to be outstanding. It went beyond mere knowledge, but capability.

The amnesiac seemed to flourish; if nothing else he was rapidly filling the role of graduate assistant and transcriber of all notes not specific to John himself. The young man seemed to shuffle data with almost intuitive ease, and seemed also able to squeeze the most out of a day’s work, the two of them sometimes talking in the front seat of Suresh’s cab all night about myths, humanity, culture, knowledge and Purpose.

Chandra obviously missed his son Mohinder, a fact not lost on Karen or their neighbor Eden McCain. And John even seemed to be picking up Hindi. At one point just after Labor Day, Suresh admitted to Karen that the genetic manifestation expected might be that of quick learning and knowledge absorption, and nothing stranger. Suresh felt that John might even place quite highly at university in India, and become a great multi-disciplinary professor should he choose.

In spite of the very long hours during the summer, Karen and John both enjoyed a lot of free time hanging out in New York, though they kept in touch with their friends in Washington and not just because of various business interests Doe had financed and planned. As Dr. Suresh prepared to relocate to Washington with them in a few days, they managed to see not only the touristy parts of the Tri-State area, but many of the locally-interesting attractions. One big help had been Suresh’s neighbor, the woman in her early twenties named Eden McCain. Karen at first had been a little suspicious of the possibility of Eden making a move on John, but very quickly took a liking to her instead. The three younger people interacted constantly, and the similarly unhappy upbringings led to John and Eden in only a few weeks acting like brother and sister. And during the long hours when the ‘men’ were delving into genetics and tests whose results on John seemed to change slightly at times beyond expectations, the ‘women’ seemed to bond and just talk. Karen also discussed their lives in Seattle, and came up with lots of ideas for other businesses and ways to improve the neighborhood. John usually smiled and while participating in the conversations when they went out, seemed unable to detach himself from his PDA. July and August had been great months, but now it was time to head home.

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

Eden and Karen looked up from having coffee in Eden’s apartment as John walked in, looking completely devastated.

“John, what’s wrong?” Karen asked as she rushed over to him.

“It’s Doc Suresh…the police were just here…they’ll probably want to talk to both of you. Doc’s dead, Karen. Some crazy got to him in his cab last night.”

“No!” she gasped as Eden stepped over, stunned. “Why?”

John looked from one woman to another, “Just some sicko, they guess…even after I told them he was afraid someone was trying to steal his research. I’m just glad they didn’t laugh in front of me about ‘a taxi driver who has research.’”

It was a very long day for all three of them, and John calling the Suresh family was something he’d done with great pain and empathy. And that night, as the three friends mourned, Karen absently fed Suresh’s pet lizard, Mohinder.

“I knew he shouldn’t have been driving a taxi,” Karen commented, mostly to herself. She continued as she looked up at the others. “I know he wanted to get a feel for Americans and keep his money from draining…”

“Karen,” Eden admonished gently as she brought in some Indian tea to drink that had been one of Chandra’s favorites. She looked at both kids, and with a slight sigh decided it might actually be for the best if she stretched the scope of her orders just touch. “We’ll all miss him. I know: why don’t you two come with me back to Texas? I have to check in with a client on a possible acquisition, and wouldn’t mind some friends for company.”

Eden stared as her slightly-deepening voice seemed to persuade the two she’d let become a little too close. Both of them nodded, though John surprised her by actually interacting in response instead of simply agreeing as most would.

“Texas? I’m a little pinched for cash for the next week, I had to send Digger the final checks for the businesses. I guess we can figure things out…sure.”

“Oh, I have enough frequent-flyer miles, John; it won’t cost me anything. I’d just like the company right now.”

The three of them nodded companionably. John turned to Karen.

“What’ll we do now, Karen? I’m actually lost here?”

“I guess we’ll just pack up our stuff and head home after Texas?”

John nodded, though both women knew he was feeling adrift at the loss of his friend and genetic detective.

“Okay. I guess that’ll work. Hey, Eden?”

“Yeah, John?” the young woman asked.

“Think you could print me up a list of folks on the Professor’s list while we pack? I never asked him, and the only info I know of is what’s on the map.”

“Sure, but why?”

“I’m thinking of checking out on the sly any of them that might be on our road trip route. If any of ‘em do have powers, then maybe talk to them.”

“And if not?”

Karen interjected herself to keep from things degenerating into further gloominess.

“Hey, we just keep goin’ since we don’t need to be labeled as kooks. Except maybe John.”

Eden smiled, and stood, glad that now with the chance to remove Claire Bennet’s name from Chandra Suresh’s computer, she’d have a good reason to be on the machine if either walked in on her.

“Gotcha. Hey, you two raid my fridge and see what we can do for dinner, and I’ll try to print out the list while we’re thinking about it.”