Noah paid the cab driver, told him to keep the change, and stepped out of the vehicle. He took a deep breath and looked up. This was the place, the address from Micah's text. That and the fact that Tracy Strauss was in some kind of trouble was all the information he had. It made him wonder what use he could possibly be to Tracy in his current state. Crippled and unarmed.

Micah had given him very little to work with and if there was anything Noah hated, it was not knowing. He could at least send someone as back-up.

"Oi, Bennet."

There it is. Noah turned around and greeted the speedster, acting as if he was expecting him all along. "Edgar." They shook hands.

"You look like you could use some help."

"I might. Did Micah tell you anything?"

Edgar shrugged. "Not much. This Strauss woman, don't ask why, but she's important to him. They lost contact a couple of hours ago. He told me he already had you looking into it, but I got tired of waiting, so I thought I'd give you a hand."

Noah knew that Tracy and Micah were related, but Micah didn't bother to share this information with Edgar and it certainly wasn't Noah's place to question Micah's motives. "That's all?" He had hoped for something a little bit more challenging than a lost contact. "So, we have no idea what's going on?"

"Could be nothing."

"Let's find out." Noah turned around started walking.

"I admire your confidence, Bennet." Edgar suddenly appeared in front of him. "But I'm not letting you go in there unarmed." He handed Noah one of his knives. "I know it's not your weapon of choice, but y'know… Just in case."

Noah nodded his thanks and slid the knife into the left sleeve of his coat to hide it from view. He wasn't expecting to get into a fight, not when he had a knife-wielding speedster by his side, and Tracy was more than capable of defending herself, but he knew from experience to always expect the unexpected. And this was definitely one of those situations.

"I'm gonna need that back."

After his last encounter with potential danger Noah was forced to leave one of his crutches in the motel room. Putting pressure on his injured leg didn't hurt as much as he thought it would, but it was definitely unpleasant. The discomfort must have shown on his face, because Edgar started eyeing his leg suspiciously. It was annoying, but he pretended not to notice anything and made his way to the building.

He stopped near the entrance and looked sideways. Someone from inside the building had to buzz them in, in order for the door to open. "Here we go." Noah was about to ring a random doorbell when an old lady suddenly opened the door from the other side.

Edgar saw an opportunity and took it. He rushed past the old lady and inside the building in less than a second. He waited in the lobby for the old lady to leave and then opened the door for Noah. "Like taking candy from a baby," he said with a grin.

Noah had to admit that teaming up with a speedster had its perks. Edgar would have been a great asset to the Company if it had still been active. "We need to move on."

"Let's take the elevator, shall we?"

Noah caught Edgar checking his watch twice while they waited inside the elevator. The speedster then took out his phone, looked at the screen and pouted as he put it away again. Something fishy was going on. "Somewhere else you need to be?"

"I'm supposed to pick up a friend, but they haven't called yet, so…"

A friend? Noah was curious about this circle of friends that Micah had created and whether Claire was also part of that circle. He truly had to fight the urge to ask Edgar about her, even though he knew he was probably better off knowing absolutely nothing. On the other hand, it was his only chance to find out what was going on with her…

His curiosity took the better of him. "Have you heard anything from Claire?"

The question took Edgar off-guard. "What do you mean? I thought… Wait, how do you know? Who told you?"

He knows something. "What's going on?" Edgar was definitely holding something back and Noah was about to press further when the elevator suddenly came to a stop. "We'll continue our conversation later," he said as the doors opened. He shot Edgar a last warning look before he left the elevator.

"It's the one on the left," Edgar said to change the subject. He sped to the door and pressed his ear against the wooden surface. "I don't hear anything," he whispered.

"Well, we're not gonna find out anything by standing here, are we?" Noah went to the door and knocked.

"I thought we were gonna break in?"

"Break in? In the middle of the day?"

"I can get in and out in less than a second. No one will notice."

"Fine." Noah sighed and stepped aside to let Edgar do his thing. "Can you get the lock?"

"I've got this neat trick..." Edgar held the doorknob and started vibrating his hand. "After you told me that I could take people with me while using my powers, I realized there was a lot more I didn't know about my speed." The door began to vibrate at the same speed as his hand and just like that, it wedged open. "I'll be back in a sec."

A gush of wind, it was all that was left of Edgar. Noah looked at the door that was slightly ajar. A second had passed. It's a trap, his gut told him. He couldn't see anything, so he used his crutch to push the door a little bit further, but it made no difference. It was too dark to see anything and there was still no sign of Edgar. Definitely a trap.

And even though he knew it was a trap he still got out his knife and went inside. He came into an empty hallway that lead to yet another door. He limped towards it and was about to put his hand on the handle when Edgar suddenly opened it from the other side.

"Put the knife away," he said as he looked over his shoulder.

What the hell? Noah did as he was told and put the knife in the pocket of his coat. "What's going on?"

"I think we've been misled."

"What are you talking about?" Noah narrowed his eyes. Edgar stepped aside to let him in. He walked into the room and squinted his eyes against the bright light coming from the center of the room. It was a big studio apartment, but it looked like it hadn't been lived in for a very long time. There was no furniture and the windows were all covered in plastic.

"Oh, good. You're finally here."

Once his eyes had adjusted to the light, he was able to make out a group of five individuals, standing around a table lamp in the middle of the room. Four men and one woman. The woman who spoke was Tracy Strauss. "What's this?" Noah asked. Tracy didn't seem to be in that much trouble. She looked fine as far as he could see.

Edgar was right. They had been misled.

One of the men, the one wearing a flat cap, waved his hand and quietly closed the door behind Edgar. "This is an emergency meeting. Why don't you join us?"

"A meeting about what?" Edgar asked. "What are you guys doing here?"

"You know these people?"

"They're my family."

Noah looked at the four strangers and frowned. "You're carnies?"

"Technically, we're no longer carnies…" The other man said.

"Technically, I've never been one." A tall, dark man approached Noah and held out his hand. "You must be Noah Bennet. My name is Ian Michaels."

Noah shook his hand. "You're not one of them?"

"If you're asking me whether I have powers, then yes. But the carnival was never truly my home. Samuel invited me a few weeks prior to the incident at Central Park. If I had known what Samuel was planning, I wouldn't have even considered…" Ian paused for a moment and then recomposed himself. "One should not dwell on the past. What's done is done."

The other three carnies introduced themselves to Noah as Teddy, John and Evan. John was the man in the flat cap who used telekinesis to close the door. Evan, the one with the long hair and the goatee, greeted Noah with a firm handshake, saying his power was to sense danger. Teddy was a rather quiet man and didn't mention anything about his powers or if he even had any. He seemed distrustful of Noah. A typical carny trait.

"So, why are we here?" Edgar asked as he checked his watch again. He was getting impatient. A typical speedster trait. "I mean, what's with all the secrecy? Micah could have just told us to find you here."

"I know Micah would never let us get caught," Tracy explained. "But we can't take any risks, especially with you." She looked at Noah and crossed her arms. "You're being watched. Everyone knows about your connection to Claire and to the rest of us. Everyone knows your face."

Noah wasn't surprised to hear that people were keeping tabs on him, but it did make him wonder whom he might have endangered. He had been in contact with both Angela and Peter Petrelli, and even had been in close proximity to Claude Rains. "Then why did Micah ask me to come to you?"

"Do you remember Abby Collins?"

"Of course."

"I realized that she was becoming a problem when a SWAT team was sent to my apartment. I got out just in time, but it was a close call. When I knew that she was after me, I decided to do some digging. I wanted to know what she was up to, so I asked Micah to hack into her computer. He was able to retrieve some highly classified documents which contained the blueprint for basically her entire President's campaign. A lot of it involves how to deal with evolved humans."

"She's going to run for President?"

"She hasn't officially announced it yet, but yes."

Noah had to take a moment to process the news. Abby Collins was a woman with lots of influence, a lot of friends in high places and so it didn't come as a surprise to him that she would consider this particular career path. But Abby had made it clear how she felt about people with abilities when she paid Noah a visit. Knowing she would run for President made her a much more serious threat.

"Noah, I've seen those documents. It's bad."

"How bad?"

"Well, she already managed to force this registration thing on us, taking away our freedom, our legal rights, our privacy… How she managed to do so in such a short period of time is beyond me, but it's only the beginning. Her endgame is to separate us from society completely."

Noah frowned. "Forced isolation? Has she lost her mind?" He dragged his hand over his face and shook his head in disbelief. It was a ridiculous plan. "Is violating every single human rights law also part of her endgame? She can't expect anyone to go along with this."

"It's insane, we know. But we think that, with the right motivation, she might actually be able to get people on board with this. It only takes one incident; one catastrophic event and we're all doomed."

"Not if we keep it under wraps, like we've always done."

Tracy shook her head. "It doesn't work like that. Not anymore."

"She's right," Ian said as he joined the conversation. "Now that they know we exist, we are at a disadvantage. When something happens that can't be explained, their fingers will be pointing at us."

"Somebody has to take a stand against her."

"And who's gonna do that? You?" John asked. "Because we sure as hell won't do it. If we take a stand against that woman, everyone will know who we are. Nobody wants that kind of attention."

Tracy had a look of desperation in her eyes as she addressed Noah. "We were hoping Claire would speak out on our behalf. She already outed herself on live television. She's got nothing to lose."

Noah wanted nothing more than to reassure these people that everything was going to be alright, but he didn't know how. He didn't know what Claire was up to. He didn't know where she was. They hadn't spoken in months. Edgar knows. Noah looked at the speedster and the speedster look at him in return. Time to spill the beans.

Everyone started staring at Edgar.

He raised his brow and shrugged. "I don't know. She's… been busy, I guess."

Tracy looked disappointed but nodded her head and continued. "I understand if it's too much pressure. It's fine. We've thought about another way to deal with Abby. But, Noah, we're gonna need your help."

Edgar cocked his head and frowned. "You just said he's being watched."

Noah exchanged looks with the speedster. They were both thinking the same thing. The reason why Micah decided to pair them up was not coincidental. These people needed Noah's help, but if their 'secret meeting' was somehow compromised, Edgar would be the fastest way to get them out of there. Clever kid. "I don't think I'll be able to talk her out of it. I don't know her all that well."

"I do know her," Tracy said. "I'm the reason why she's so intent on doing this."

"Yes, she told me she saw a man freeze to death. She said it happened right in front of her."

"That was Danko. He wanted Abby to see that I was no longer the person she thought I was."

"You guys have been dealing with some crazy motherfuckers," John said as he moved toward one of the windows. He pried at a bit of plastic and looked outside. "Coast still clear."

"Don't forget, we had Samuel to deal with..." Edgar took his phone out of his pocket and suddenly grew very quiet…

"Something wrong?" Noah asked.

"I gotta go."

And just like that, Edgar was gone. Noah had a bad feeling. His gut was telling him that something was wrong. He knew he should have made Edgar tell the truth about Claire. It was his only chance to find out what was going on with his daughter and he wasted it.

"He'll be back. Noah," Tracy tapped him on the arm to get his attention. "We're not asking you to talk to Abby. She won't listen to you anyway, nor anyone else. We thought about dealing with this the easy way…"

"I still think we should," John said as he walked away from the window. "Why go through all this trouble to solve a problem when we can just take it out at the source? We can be as discreet as we want."

"We don't want to start a war. If that's how we treat our enemies, how do you think they will treat us?"

"What do you suggest?" Noah asked. He wanted to move on to the part where he came in.

"First, we have to get the President on our side. There has to be a way that we can arrange a meeting of some sorts. Then we need to let the people know that we mean no harm, that we're not all that different. But we can't do that from the shadows. We need a public face, someone who can actually make a change. I think what we need is a politician."

Someone like Nathan Petrelli. Noah agreed that evolved humans needed to be represented on a federal level. But unless there was another US Senator with the ability to fly, their chances of finding someone to vouch for them were extremely small. "I'm guessing that someone isn't me."

"We could really use a shape-shifter."

There it was, the reason why Micah had led him to this meeting under false pretenses. Noah shook his head and sighed. "You have to be kidding me." He had been used. These people didn't need his help. All they needed was intel. "Have you lost your mind?"

"Micah can't find him," Tracy continued as she ignored his grumbling. "He's been through every single database, hacked into every single computer, but found nothing. There is no digital data on where he's being held."

"And with good reason."

"Noah, listen to me…"

"No, you listen to me." Noah had heard enough. He wasn't going to get himself involved in some fool's errant. He still had his principles. "There are other ways to deal with this problem."

"What's the matter?" Ian asked. "Why can't we use this shape-shifter?"

"Are you gonna tell him or should I?"

Tracy crossed her arms and turned to Ian. "Sylar is the only shape-shifter that we know of."

"I think I've heard that name before."

"You heard me say his name when I told the world what he is capable of. Sylar kills people like you and then takes away their powers. Sometimes he doesn't even need a reason. He will kill for the pure joy of it. Is that the kind of person you want to infiltrate our government? Someone who kills for fun and personal gain?"

"Sylar was one of us."

"So was Samuel."

"Enough!"

"Quiet," Evan whispered. He hadn't said a word the entire time, but now, all of a sudden, he seemed anxious about something. "Everybody, move to the walls and stay quiet."

John turned off the light instantly.

Noah looked around and frowned. Evan's ability was to sense perilous situations and for some reason he believed they were in one at that very moment. Noah didn't hear anything and wondered what all the fuss was about. But then everybody started moving towards the wall and he knew he had to follow.

He pressed his back against the wall and waited.

The door flew open and an entire SWAT team of six members entered the room.

Noah stood frozen on the spot. He had no idea what was going to happen next, but he knew it couldn't be good and it was all his fault. He had led them straight to Tracy and the carnies. And now they were about to be captured and there wasn't anything he could do about it. He wanted to blame Edgar for leaving, but Edgar wasn't even supposed to be there in first place.

This was all on Noah.

The group of six heavily armed men and women went to the center of the room, took a quick gander around, and then left the apartment as quick as they had entered it, on their way to the next one.

What the hell just happened? Noah had never been more confused in his life. He looked sideways at Tracy and the others and frowned. There was no way that a group of six professionally trained law enforcement units weren't able to notice a group of six full-grown adults standing with their backs against the wall in an empty studio apartment.

And then it hit him. Teddy's ability. It had to be some kind of cloaking power, an ability that allowed him to hide and reveal objects with his mind. Or people, in this case.

Tracy breathed a sigh of relief. "They were looking for me," she said as she distanced herself from the wall.

"Next time they'll be using heat vision," Teddy said. "We won't be able to hide for much longer."

"That's what our future looks like if we don't do anything." Tracy looked at Noah, no longer with desperation but with fear. "We need a shape-shifter."

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