Zoe materialized into the middle of the room. "Hey, you guys," she greeted, smiling playfully.
"You do have a power," Claire blurted.
"What? You guys knew?" she asked, surprised. Then it set in how impossible that was. "How could you possibly know? Unless..." She looked back and forth between them, trying to figure out which of them would be more likely to have a power.
"I can heal," Claire explained.
"Like in Heroes," Karyn added.
"Heroes?" she wondered, teleporting behind them. "Save the cheerleader..." When they turned, she popped back to the other side of the room, "...save the world, huh?" She looked at Claire. "You don't suppose you need saving?"
It was just a joke and Zoe had no idea what was going on, but Karyn and Claire gave each other worried looks. In the show, the serial killer Sylar tries to kill Claire to steal her power to add to his growing collection. "But that's just a show," Claire thought aloud. Sylar didn't exist. She was the only character brought from the show.
"It is..." Zoe popped to the far corner, "...until it isn't." She popped back in front of them. "Man, that never gets old!"
"Not to you, maybe," Karyn said. She was getting tired of craning her neck around all the time. "Claire's like Claire on the show... I guess you're like Hiro. You teleport."
Zoe shook her head. "Hiro could go places he'd only seen pictured. My power's more like that kid's from Jumper." She 'jumped' behind them. "So, Karyn, you got a power?" She 'jumped' back as they turned.
"Would you cut that out?" Karyn demanded. "No, not as far as I know. I only just found out about Claire's power."
Zoe paused. She would have teleported a bit more to annoy Karyn, but what she said got her thinking practically. "Claire, you're not telling everyone about this, right? You're not demonstrating it at pep rallies?"
"Uh, no," Claire said. Not as far as I know, she thought.
Zoe nodded. "Good. This needs to be kept secret. Heroes may be fiction, but people are people. Some people are corrupt and use power for evil. They may not have superpowers, but... maybe some do. I think it's a good idea to not let people know what we can do."
"Okay," Claire agreed. Her mind spun. Zoe was right. There could be bad guys out there and while Sylar didn't exist, was it so hard to believe that someone could have his power and be inclined to go around killing people with superpowers? The city was more like Heroes, after all.
"Save the cheerleader, save the world," Karyn repeated, nodding her agreement. She looked worriedly at Claire.
Claire nodded back. She didn't mean to wish herself into a damsel-in-distress role. She was going to have to make some new, better thought out wishes to make sure she didn't need to be saved.
