Peter Petrelli. Empath. Evolved human. Paramedic, former home hospice nurse. The Italian Eagle Scout, not the exploding man.
Let’s begin pointing out that is no coincidence Peter is a nurse. He prefers working for people in need and taking care of them instead of having a well paid job. Peter’s original ability is directly connected to what’s probably the strongest of his treats: his empathy for people.
When we get to see him in the future or alternative universes, we realize he’s changed. He’s no longer dreamy and hopelessly romantic or naive but strong and distant. Yet, he still cares about people.
For instance, in the alternative future where he was the bomb that exploded he has problems coping with the guilt of killing so many people. This would explain his nonsense romantic relation with Niki Sanders. It’s more than apparent they don’t share feelings for each other, for Niki’s still mourning the loss of her husband and child, D.L and Micah. But since Peter was all along the cause of their deaths, he feels the need of supporting her and giving her some stability and so he does.
It’s also said by his mother. Peter’s loyalty is to people rather than actions, and this is usually criticized by Nathan, but he would always put other before him and this remarkably relevant for the use of the powers he copies.
The ability itself works as a sponge, many times unconsciously or unwillingly, but so as to him to control the acquired ability and use it at his will he needs to remember and focus on how the person he took it from makes him feel.
This is first manifested when he levitates while arguing with his brother Nathan. The conversation in particular is strong and centered on how he feels about/expects from his brother, rather than about the flying thing. That connection between his and Nathan’s emotions and conflicts are the trigger for Peter to use Nathan’s powers. But to do this consciously he needs to get in contact with feelings more close to the surface, for the relationship with his brother is too complex and often also triggers anguish in him.
The positive and tangible feelings he needs to control his powers is the relationship he had with Claire Bennet.
Unaware of their connection and blood relation, when they first met due to his empathy he immediately picked up Claire was having a hard time at school to which he ensures her that life gets better after high-school.
We can presume he shares the feeling and that’s why he shows himself so understanding to a stranger. Someone like Peter might have been an easy target for other boys at school but in that moment, in that brief moment it isn’t about him but about this unknown girl who is “just jealous” of her fellow local-star Jackie. Later, that beautiful girl turns out to be the cheerleader destined to be saved by Peter to therefore save the world, making him her hero. That gives him a complete feeling of accomplishment. He’s someone special, he’s saved the cheerleader and he’s a hero. The future of that crush changes abruptly when they found out their blood relation but that’s another story.
He also was able to use D.L’s power despite never having talked to him before their first meeting, however, the situation in which Peter used the phasing power was a clear paradigm of D.L’s feeling and fears through his life.
In conclusion, even though with time and practice he gets to use the powers naturally without much effort, Peter’s empathy (which isn’t a power by itself but just a personality treat) is the key to connect and control the powers he absorbs.
Peter's backstory in this universe is basically the same through Season 1, albeit with some minor changes such as there being more evolved humans running around, resulting in Peter meeting others and acquiring some more abilities, along with the Suresh's having a lot more to do in the backstory.
On the other hand, this also meant more targets for Sylar, who ended up with even more powers by the time of her final showdown with the Heroes in Kirby Plaza.
The battle between the two was far more epic in this universe, the best way to describe it, is Chronicle meets Avatar. In other words, Telekinesis with Elemental Blasts and Super Strength.
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Matt Parkman even got in on the action this time by setting off a fire alarm when Sylar was in the middle of using her super hearing to find him and Peter. The pain from this threw her off her game long enough for Matt to shoot at her, though Sylar was able to use telekinesis to shield herself just in time and throw Matt out the window, it gave Peter some time to recover from an earlier wound and jump back into the fight. He was soon joined by Nikki, who used her super strength to back Peter up in their fight.
Ultimately, while Sylar was the more skilled of the two at the time and had greater control and understanding of her various powers, Peter had even greater versatility than her and was the one with regeneration and had friends, resulting in Peter essentially winning. He had Sylar on the ropes and was in the middle of beating her bloody when the Induced Radioactivity Peter had previously absorbed from Ted started acting up. Before Peter could shut it off, Sylar flung Peter open and cut open his chest, forcing Peter to focus his efforts on preventing it from getting out of control.
"Well look at that. Looks like you're the big villain, Peter. I'm the Hero." Sylar taunted and spat blood on the ground. She was about to go after Peter's head, which would either incapacitate Peter or cause him to go nuclear, which Sylar figured she would survive thanks to possessing the same Radioactivity power due to killing Ted earlier.
And that was when Claire rammed Sylar with a Jeep she, ahem, 'borrowed' on the way there.
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Claire: "THAT WAS FOR JACKIE!"
Already bloody and dazed from her fight with Peter, Sylar was unable to stop it like she normally would've and she was sent flying through the air by the impact, breaking her arm and several bones, and it nearly wiped her out. But Sylar was nothing if not strong willed. She used her telekinesis to 'puppeteer' her own broken body and hold it together. Sylar attempted to grab Claire who used Noah's gun to fight back. While Sylar was able to shield herself, she wasn't anywhere close to her full strength and the impact of the bullets still hurt her. She missed her first few telekinetic cuts but she was ultimately able to cut her gun in half and she slit Claire's throat. While The Immortal Cheerleader was able to heal, it slowed her down enough that Sylar was able to grab her with telekinesis and she tried to drag her over to cut open her head and take her power but Nikki recovered from earlier injuries and jumped back in the fight and tackled Sylar into a pillar. Sylar was able to throw her off but before she could continue the fight further, Hiro teleported into the battle and charged her, teleported to avoid a telekinetic slice, and he was finally able to successfully impale her.
With Sylar seemingly defeated, Peter tried to have Hiro teleport him to the Nevada desert so he could explode safely, but Sylar used the last of her power to throw Hiro at a building. Hiro teleported into the past to escape.
The rest played out the same, with Nathan flying Peter into the sky where he exploded safely above New York.
Later, Sylar and Peter were both apprehended by The Company and kept prisoner at different prisons. Peter was kept locked away inside of a facility to ensure he would never escape to explode, while Sylar was kept inside of a facility in Mexico and experimented on, resulting in her powers being taken away by a variation of the Shanti Virus.
Peter's adventures during the Shanti Virus storyline were mostly the same, up until they met Victoria Pratt.
In one of the few instances of Peter manipulating time, he went back in time to save Victoria after Adam murdered following their misunderstanding. He froze time in the present, traveled back in time a day before they would have visited Victoria and warns her about what is coming and works out a plan with her to replace the bullets in the handgun that Adam would've used with blanks and to put blood packs in the back of her shirt. He also told her to think about their meeting when Peter in the past reads her mind and that he'll know what to do. The real reason that Peter was seeking the virus was so that he could secure it until he could rescue Caitlyn from the virus future and then destroy the virus here in the present to ensure that the Viral Outbreak Future would never come to pass.
Peter then returned to the present and walked away with Adam, knowing that Victoria was alive thanks to Peter and Victoria faking her death so that she could warn Angela.
When they arrived at the Primateh Facility in Odessa, Texas, Hiro arrived and froze time. Peter embraced his old friend, relieved to see that he was alive, and they quickly got caught up on what they'd been going through, since time was frozen. Peter then informed Hiro of his plan and that he would require Hiro's help to save Caitlyn. Hiro agreed to wait to duel Adam until the virus had been secured and teleported away for the moment.
Peter resumed storming the facility with Adam, using his telekinesis to throw down the guards so Adam wouldn't have the chance to kill anyone. He also blasted an alarm with lighting to shut it up. When they found the vault, Peter thanked Adam and walked through it with phasing, found the virus and got in touch with Hiro, who reappeared with a box. They gently placed it inside and they teleported out and surprised Adam.
Peter revealed that he'd trusted Adam up until their meeting with Victoria, where he decided to change tactics. Adam was shocked into brief silence, he was over 300 years old, how the hell did this rookie outplay him?!
Nathan and Matt arrived soon after and the four of them surrounded Adam. He tried to persuade Peter into releasing the virus but Peter shut him down. Unable to fight all of them, he challenged Hiro to a duel, who agreed and teleported both of them away. He even gave Adam his own sword and they dueled for the fate of the virus, allegedly anyway, because despite what he said, Peter, Nathan and Matt had zero intention of releasing it anyway. Despite not using his chronokinesis, Hiro was ultimately able to disarm and defeat Adam. He then trapped Adam in a coffin in a graveyard as payback for killing his father.
The four buried the virus in a hidden location that only they knew about and then Peter worked with Hiro to find Caitlyn in the bad future and they were able to bring her back to the present and they secured her for the moment inside of a Primatech Quarantine Facility for their own safety since she was in a world plagued by an apocalyptic viral outbreak. She sobbed as she held Peter and he apologized profusely for leaving her alone because of his power glitch.
Peter performed a brief blood transfer to ensure that Caitlyn would be cured of the virus and did the same with Hiro, just to be safe.
With this taken care of, Peter teleported away, dug up the virus and destroyed it with his radioactivity, thereby preventing its release from ever happening, thereby erasing the Viral Outbreak Timeline.
Around this time, Sylar resurfaced, having stolen a sample of Claire's blood from Mohinder and using it on herself to cure herself of the virus and allowing her to access her Intuitive Aptitude and Telekinesis once more.
Sylar immediately made a beeline for Claire and attacked the Bennet Children in their house. Lyle attempted to defend his sister from the Telekinetic Serial Killer but was swept aside and while Claire was able to stab Sylar by surprise, she was ultimately overpowered and Sylar cut open her head and stole her power. Now immortal, Sylar put Claire's scalp back on and escaped. As a result of this attack, Claire's power went into overdrive and evolved a condition similar to congenital insensitivity to pain.
Sylar resumed her killing spree with stolen files she took from the Bennet House. She quickly tracked down Robert Keep and took his power, Supernaturally Impenetrable Skin, via a soft spot in his mouth, and then she tracked down the Chameleon Girl, and killed her for her Dynamic Camouflage Power, among others, before going after The Company, both for the powers there and out of vengeance for their torturous experiments.
When Peter and Nathan discovered what happened to Claire, they were utterly enraged but managed to keep it under control and they comforted Claire before leaving, predicting that she would go for The Company.
Meanwhile, Sylar was on a killing spree through the company, cutting the power and slaughtering the guards with telekinesis while essentially invisible. Elle recruited Noah to help her stop Sylar and they attempted to make a final stand. Bob Bishop attempted to stop Sylar by turning the floor she was standing on, and thus her feet, to gold. Unfortunately, Sylar floated into the air to avoid it and flung Bishop into a wall. She was about to kill Bob and Angela for their powers when Elle and Noah burst in and attacked Sylar with lightning and bullets respectively.
Sylar laughed at their efforts and shrugged them off, boasting about her newfound invulnerability and immortality. She then disarmed Noah and tossed him aside before overpowering Elle. Bob attempted to save his daughter but Sylar dismissively tossed him away as well. She was about to cut open Elle's head when Nathan flew in like a supersonic missile, collided with Sylar, smashed her against a wall, against another wall, against the ceiling and down on top of a desk before he floated up into air, whipped out a handgun and unloaded the bullets at Sylar's forehead....and they bounced right off. Sylar got right back up from that attack and tried to attack Nathan but then Hiro warped in, stopped time, unsheathed his sword and yelled out while slashing at Sylar's neck, aiming to decapitate her. The sword shattered against her skin, shocking Hiro out of his timestop. Sylar quickly flung him away but before she could do anything else, Matt attacked her mentally. Peter and Hiro used this chance to teleport Noah, Bob and Angela to the medical wing. Realizing they couldn't hurt Sylar, Angela and Noah told Hiro where The Haitian was and he teleported away to retrieve him.
While Hiro was assisting The Haitian in dealing with Baron Samedii, Sylar was able to push Matt out of her mind, albeit with a killer headache to show for it, and Peter stepped in and took over and the two began their rematch.
Despite Sylar having acquired new powers, Peter still had all of his old powers, new ones on top of those and he now had greater skill and control since their last fight. His first action in their rematch was to demonstrate this by stopping time and punching Sylar out of the window and following this up with a powerful lightning blast to the face. Sylar withstood it, but she was surprised to now find herself outside on the ground. Wiping her mouth, Sylar attempted to use her camo power to hide but because Peter had Claude's invisibility, he was able to see her and he smashed her against an outer wall. Their fight wrecked The Company building and it soon became apparent that Peter was now above Sylar in power, even figuring out how to use telepathy to read her moves ahead of time.
Once Baron Samedii's militia were taken care of and the villain was apprehended, Hiro teleported him, the Haitian and the agents he was working back to Primatech, where The Haitian was able to suppress Sylar's powers. Needless to say, Peter then beat the daylights out of Sylar and she was locked up in the deepest levels of The Company with her powers suppressed and Sylar herself was placed in a drug induced coma.
After everything was over, Angela discussed things with the Heroes. She inquired as to the location of the virus now and Peter flat out stated he destroyed it. He glimpsed the future where it got out and he was not going to let it happen on his watch. Naturally, Peter and Nathan called out their mother and the company men for keeping something like the virus around instead of destroying it sooner. Angela agreed with them, as did Noah and Bob Bishop (Reluctantly) and they informed the Heroes about their other secrets. Except Arthur...whom Angela assumes is dead.
Following this adventure, he and Nathan made amends with one another and gradually with their family. Claire and Lyle received therapy for what happened.
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