Chapter 1
Prologue part 1
3 Years before the Odessa summit
In 2006 Dr. Mohinder Suresh; Geneticist, was a madman chasing a politician now he was the authority on genetics, back in 2006 he was a dutiful son defending his father's reputation and honor, avenging him and following his footsteps even after his death, now he was his own man under his own authority, in 2006 he was a cabdriver now he was the most respected professor of biology and genetics in the university of Columbia, one of the golden jewels...because before 2006 Dr. Chandra Suresh was right and his son followed his footsteps, because both where proven right in 2010.
While many had outed themselves, Mohinder decided to keep his powers secrets, he wasn't an evo after all; that would have meant that evolution did it and he knew that wasn't the case, to be sure he wasn't sure what he was.
He got his powers from the long line of bad decisions he made from the moment he decided to follow his father's footsteps.
He looked again at his watch, it was getting late.
He hurried to finish his breakfast, his hash brown potatoes, his chai and his fruit, he was getting late after all, he left the scrambled eggs on the table for the cat (the one he got after his lizard namesake died of natural causes) and graved his coat from his chair, tweed with patches in the elbows because after all there where some stereotypes that weren’t meant to be broken.
his new apartment was way bigger than his first apartment in New York, his house in India was still bigger, but the apartment was rather large and pretty, of all the things he had with him when he first had an apartment in New York he only kept his elephant statue, that and the gun he kept under his bed in his first, crappier apartment.
He closed his door in a hurry, rushed out of his apartment, outside he pushed the elevator's bottom so many times he feared he might break it, when he realized the elevator wouldn't come, and he rushed down the stairs to the building's parking lot.
When he finally arrived, he struggled a couple of times with the keys of his new fancy car, until he finally managed to finally open the door of his car, he hoped in and got out in a hurry.
Lucky him traffic wasn't heavy at all, even so he managed to buy some coffee before leaving as usual, he played in his car's radio a CD that had few themes from movies, and he managed to arrive to Columbia in time.
He got off his car, he was whistling the theme from Jurassic Park, and walked straight to the classroom, ready to apologize for the time in which he was arriving only to see he was actually five minutes early, five minutes early he gave his class as usual, "Hello class, my name is Dr. Mohinder Suresh and this is..." and he spoke, and spoke, that was after all the first class of the semester but luckily Mohinder was passionate when teaching.
after his class was done, he picked all the things he left in his desk, ready to leave when he was approached in the door by a student, a Caucasian male, tall, bald with a blonde soul patch and a pencil mustache.
-Doctor Suresh? - approached the man, his English had a heavy german accent, he remembered a mention of a german from the Primatech files, but then again, there is a lot of people in Germany.
-Yes?-
-My name is Günter Eldritch Hegel, I am one of your students, and can we talk?-
-Sure_
Mohinder's office was a bit tackier and more crowded with things than his apartment, the office was surrounded by more sentimental things, the desk was in fact his father's, and Mohinder at some point had it brought from Mumbai.
-So...is there anything you wanted to tell me? The real classes start tomorrow and I haven't assigned papers yet-
-No sir, I just...well you said that in the case of evos, not all come with an actual superpower, some come with defects-
-Yes, you see, the thing that makes evos, well...evos is a different arrangement of the amino-acids in chromosome 13, but the arrangement can be random and produces different things, in some cases superpowers, in some no noticeable difference and in some, a lethal decease, I'm glad you are interested but we are not there yet, we still need to cover-
- It's not that, professor, I...have a sibling, we both are "Evolved" but I got telekinesis, while she got...something...something similar to leukemia, she also studies in this university, she is studding history and she hopes to be an expert on the samurai, she's dying, you know? And I heard that you were some kind of expert in genetic mutations, that you once managed to give a man superpowers and later you cured a genetic disease, my sister is really bad, you know?-
the man was on the break of crying, Mohinder never met shanti but he could relate, he did manage to give someone superpowers (himself), he knew how to re-arrange the order of the DNA in order to produce something, and he needed to redeem himself, for what he did when his power was out of control, for what he did when he was working with the company, for a lot of things
Coyote Sands didn't brought any peace to him, but maybe, just maybe helping this man would.
-I can't promise you anything, but what I can do, is do all my best to help you as much as I can-
**
In October 12 he began working with Renautas, he often tried to tell himself that this...wasn't "The Company", this wasn't "Pinehearst" but Mohinder's instinct was to distrust anyone.
He still continued teaching at the university and helping the young Hegel, with his sister, eventually he would call Molly in India to check in, she was, after all, almost his daughter, he would sometimes, chat with Hiro, who was doing well for himself, and Mohinder hold no grudge to Hiro for placing him in a mental facility, he would call Peter every now and then, Claire, his colleagues in India, but the work he was doing, with Renautas, with the University, with his own personal research, with Hegel, kept him too busy to do anything about it.
He was getting more and founder of the young german, despite his horrible taste in music and food.
He noted in the young man a toned of idealism he himself used to have way back before he met Peter, before many things.
In a way he was similar to Hiro, idealistic, young, big heart, a bit nerdy...he was also a bit more serious, he was kind and he liked helping people, Mohinder often noted that when they were working with Hegel's sister, he would often prepare beverages for him and for the young woman.
Mohinder feel bad for the guy, and he would remind him often that whatever they were doing might not work, but the young man was always optimist and full of himself.
the work was improvised, they couldn't use a very advanced equipment but He and Hegel would always find use of the old stuff he had, the young woman proved to be cultured and easy to talk with, and much to the liking of Mohinder, she had a great interest in philosophy, something that also important in Dr. Suresh’s own life. She would not flinch when pinched or when either Hegel or he needed samples.
It was all set up in Mohinder's old lab, the one that used to be Isaac's studio, the one with the huge painting of a bomb in the floor.
His work at Renautas was different, Erika had told him is for the greater good, he never contacted any people and he had a legion of drones and lab assistants that would turn the microscope, clean the samples, work the centrifuge and even make his coffee for him, Mohinder rarely got the chance of putting his own hands on anything, everything was done for him in seconds.
The lab was clean, white, and sterile, everything in there was new, shiny, sealed. He did work in a different way. every now and then he would get visits from Molly, Hiro or Peter; Sylar had tried to make amends with him, but Sylar had never been allowed in to the lab, Matt never even bothered; he said a couple of "hi" every now and then on Facebook or on the phone's tape recorded, sometimes he would get a few students, but Hegel seemed to be there almost always, Mohinder wasn't sure he ever had a friend like than, granted Peter had saved his life multiple times, but it just wasn't the same.
Hegel would follow Mohinder almost anywhere, but he never referred to him as "Mohinder", even after he insisted; most of the time he was either "Doctor" or "Professor" sometimes he would be "Professor Suresh" and on even rarer times he was "Doc" but for the most part, he was "Professor".
So to say that Hegel was like a puppy would have been and understatement.
never the less they would often talk about many things in life, it was the sort of relationship he thought he had with "Zane Taylor", and sometimes when he was sent on expeditions, Hegel would come with him, helping not only in the lab or in the investigation but in many other things.
Granted, Hegel's cocking was terrible (Mohinder never told him), but the rest of his skills where rather impressive, The couple of times where Molly came to his lab Hegel and she would get along much to the comfort and joy of Professor Suresh, he always cleaned the equipment even when Mohinder begged him not to, and he was there almost always 15 minutes earlier than everyone else; both in the "Fun-Lab" and in Renautas permanent lab.
And each time that Mohinder tried to compensate him he would get something like "There is no need, Professor", and in return Mohinder would protect him and take him under his wing; Renautas was always reluctant to accept Hegel in the lab since "he was a student", but Mohinder would often sneak him in. He taught him every day something new, he taught him tricks with the equipment and even bought him a new coat as a "thank-you" gift.
It was the perfect mentor-protégée relationship he never had with his own father or teachers at the Madras University.
However he never told Hegel about his ability, about Sylar or Danko, or about his father, how he almost became a monster of classical horror or how he abandoned everything to chaise his father's crazy (now factual) theory; Matt knew already about that, so did Peter, and Claire, and Sylar himself.
Perhaps one day he would tell him.