taxonomites | 001: [HOLO] Cheerleader wants to go home.

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001: [HOLO] Cheerleader wants to go home.

It's just another day in the life of Claire Bennet.

Only a moment ago, she had been sitting at a table in a diner, in the company of her biological family and her very tired father. They'd just watched a press conference on MSNBC given by a person who looked like Nathan, but was really Sylar with a new ability. And the last thing she remembered was Nathan looking more pissed off than he had when she'd called him Senator Skyboy.

She's not with them anymore, so she looks around. She looks for Hiro, because it's possible that he got his ability back and pulled her out of there. Why would he do that? Claire has nothing but questions; questions that will be of no use to her here, when she has no one to answer them.

She feels something nudge at her feet, and gives a relieved sigh when she notices that Mr. Muggles is with her. When she kneels down to greet him, she notices the bracelet on her hand. She didn't put it there, and she's not sure whether to leave it on or try to take it off.

"Hey," she tells Mr. Muggles quietly, lifting the anxious dog into her arms. "It's okay." They've survived weirder things than this. Her head hasn't been cut open and she's not twitching on the coffee table. She can fight if she has to, if anyone tries to hurt them. It looks like they're in Tomorrowland, and it wouldn't surprise her if Rosie from The Jetsons was the person who came onto the platform to greet her.

Why couldn't it be Hiro with his powers?

"Hello?" Claire calls out, raising her voice to try to get the attention of something or someone that might be able to help her find her way out of this. "Is anyone here?" If her dad was with her, he'd be telling her not to give anyone the advantage of finding her before she can find them.

Not that her dad would believe this. She feels a little like Alice in Wonderland, and wishes she could blame it on the book. But throwing the blame on a magical book?

It's not a magical book, but it might be a magical Blackberry. Claire picks up the tablet on the pedestal next to her and touches on the buttons until a map glows out at her. Taxon. She doesn't know what Taxon is, or who's around. Maybe the rest of her family already came through here. "It looks like there are other people around."

Mr. Muggles whimpers a little at the tablet as Claire makes her way down to the door, pulls it open, and starts out. For where, for what, and for who...she hasn't exactly figured any of that out yet.

She needs some time to think.

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Xander has been here a little while now, and has become accustomed to people periodically showing up in a state of confusion. So he offers Claire's image a very non-confrontational and/or intimidating wave and a smile. "Hi?"

She wasn't expecting anyone to answer like that. His greeting catches her off guard and she holds Mr. Muggles a little closer, sighing when the dog barks at the image. Her response is a little delayed, because it takes her a moment to remember that she has to speak. "Hey."

"Hey." He replies, unnecessarily, and perhaps a little awkwardly. "I guess you figured out the map function already, but welcome to Taxon. I'm Xander- and I should probably point out straight off that I didn't bring you here. And I'm not a pirate."

Claire nods, not having assumed that he was a pirate in the first place. She doesn't know what to think of him, or Taxon, but he's friendly enough to keep her from trying to figure out how to make his hologram go away. More importantly, he also seems to be ready to offer her some type of explanation. "Okay. Who are you and who brought me--us, here?"

Alas, since arriving he's been asked if he's an imp, ghost, pirate and Nick Fury (in no particular order), hence the disclaimer. He shrugs, which he realises isn't really a sufficient explanation, and so proceeds to elaborate.

"I really have no idea who brought us here. As far as I've seen there's no tangible bad guy, and the city isn't populated-- so your guess is as good as mine. And I'm Xander, Harris specifically. I just arrived a few hours before you did."

She isn't sure what to make of his explanation. There has to be a bad guy, they just haven't met him yet. She thinks on it for a moment, and wonders if it's Sylar and Danko. Everything feels so real--but that doesn't mean that it isn't some kind of illusion. It could mean that it's a very powerful illusion.

"I'm Claire Bennet," she offers, debating whether or not to ask her next question. "Can you do anything?" It's worded completely wrong, and she knows it, so she continues. "Do you have an ability? A superpower? Healing, flying, breathing under water, super strength...anything like that?"

If he's normal, she's pretty sure he's going to think she's crazy. That wouldn't be a new experience for her.

"It's nice to meet you, Claire." He nods. Theeeen he's a little thrown off by the question, and this is reflected in his expression, which is one of 'bzuh?', but he doesn't immediately jump to the crazy conclusion.

"Aside from an incredible talent for fixing broken doors and windows, I'm going to have to say no. Dare I ask why you ask?"

"Doors and windows," Claire echoes. She guessed he was talking about a job, and his confusion with the abilities mention meant he wasn't like her. It had been worth a shot. And it might have eliminated Sylar from the equation.

"Um, no reason." She shrugs her shoulders a little, tries to pretend that she wasn't on some kind of freak watch already. Like she isn't some indestructible, immortal girl who thinks she only gets in trouble because of her powers.

"It's always like that in the movies."

Claire's explanation isn't exactly the most convincing thing ever-- particularly to Xander who has ample experience with evasive teenage girls, but luckily he's not the prying type. "Well, that's true. I think if this were a movie I'd be taller and 25% more handsome too though. Never mind."

(He's more the 'make bad jokes to cover awkwardness' type).

"Hey, I can make myself useful by letting you know that this building is called the Sanctuary though. It has a kitchen and a bar on the ground floor, and the rest is full of eerily modern hotel rooms."

"Thanks," Claire says appreciatively. She'll take whatever information she can get at this point, but she doesn't plan on staying in the Sanctuary or the city. She needs to find a way out of her so that she can meet up with everyone in Washington.

"Eerily modern like the rest of this place, right?" Someone was expecting them to stick around. "I've never seen anything like it."

"Not a problem." Xander nods, glad to be helpful, even if it's in a very limited fashion. Then there's a sigh as he casts an absent glance around.

"Me neither. If you look outside though, a lot of the city is really old. Style-wise, I mean-- I don't know if it genuinely is or not. But there's architecture from all over history out there."

"Is it?" Claire looks a little bothered by that. If the city doesn't match the building, she has no idea what this place is really supposed to be. She runs a hand through her hair, trying to figure out what to do.

"I guess I should go out there then, look around a little." She's not scared, she's just weirded out by the whole thing. "Are we talking bomb shelter old or pyramid old?"

Matt had found his way out of the creepy alien abduction room and immediately had searched the immediate vicinity for people. He hadn't recognized any of the brain patterns, but his iPhone wannabe popped up with a little mini-Claire Bennet. Sure, of course that would make sense. In the non-sensical way.

"Claire? Are you okay?" He noticed the worry on her face, figuring she'd just come out of a similar experience. He shifted his turtle under the other arm so he could hold out the device in front of him.

Claire hadn't seen Matt since the plane crash. She'd watched the reports about him being a 'terrorist' on the evening news, but she didn't want to believe them. Now they were both here, in what appeared to be a completely different world.

"Yeah, I'm okay," she took a deep breath, wanting to see someone in person instead of using this stupid gadget. "Are you? How long have you been here?"

"I think so. Just got out of a room with crap I'm not even sure is supposed to exist," he replied. He could keep his cool if he focused on making sure Claire was okay.

"I'm good, dunno how long I was there though. Went to sleep last night, woke up on the floor." He was hurrying down the hallway now, still mentally searching for her, unaware of the GPS-like capabilies of the device they were communicating on. She was faint, but he'd finally gotten a glimpse.

"I just got here too," Claire answered. They didn't have enough information to figure this out yet, but they'd get there. She wasn't by herself in a building of strangers anymore. Knowing that Matt was around didn't make her any less freaked that they'd been taken, but it gave her hope that they would be able to find a way out.

"I was out in the desert with Nathan, Peter, Angela, and my dad. Mohinder was there for a while, he wouldn't leave with us. They know what they have to do now but Sylar--" she stopped herself, trying to keep from throwing too much at Matt at once. "I wanted to help them."

"Yeah, things are bad still. I can see you, if you hold your position, I think I can find you. Sorry, I'm not trying to get any thoughts from you, but sometimes they pop in," he apologized in advance for his method of connecting with her.

"I was uh, I fell asleep with my son next to me," he added. "Matt, his name's Matt." A smile ghosted across his lips, then fell away again, when he realized the boy was nowhere to be found. "Sylar? Was he there?"

Claire was immediately still when Matt told her to hold her position. "You have a son," she commented, the hint of happiness creeping into her voice. This had to be a new development, one that Claire could tell Matt was excited about. He deserved to have a family, especially after everything that had happened during the plane crash.

"He was on the news, pretending to be Nathan. He killed a shapeshifter and took his ability. Dad says he's working with Danko. Nathan thinks that Sylar is going to use his position to try to get to the president."

"Wow, oh man. Guess I was a little caught up in...other things. We gotta get outta here," he said. He jogged up a staircase and then down another corridor, seeing her a little more clearly as he went.

"Yeah, uh, Janice - my ex-wife. Hiro and Ando saved him when Danko's goons showed up at her house to take them both in," he explained. He saw her blonde hair from the back with his own eyes, and let his hand holding the tablet fall to his side. "Hey," he greeted, relieved to see her in person, intact. He stood a little lamely in front of her.

Finally, Claire had someone she could trust standing in front of her. She smiled, moving to embrace him without really thinking about it. If it wasn't a 'thank god I'm not alone anymore' hug, it was a 'congratulations on your ex-wife keeping a good secret' hug. Either way, she couldn't help but give him one.

"We need to get home," she agreed as she pulled back. "Someone named Xander told me that he's been here for a few hours. Here is Taxon." The city she had never heard of that didn't have many people in it. "I've never heard of anything like this before."

He smiled, surprised at the embrace but returning it in kind, holding his tutrle out to prevent the little guy from being squished. He listened to her as she spoke, thinking about the possible causes for the place.

"I don't know, Claire, maybe it's some kind of group hallucination? They found a better way to gather and shut up the rest of us?" He posited, but it seemed flimsy at best. He was less near panic, now that Claire was tangible and also trying to figure out what was happening to them.

"This Xander guy on our side?"

"He says he hasn't found anything bad to be on the other side of," Claire knew he could have been lying, but people didn't go out of their way to lie. He wouldn't have contacted her in the first place if he was working against them. Why risk it?

She knelt down and let Mr. Muggles sniff around, reaching over and scratching gently behind his ears."I thought maybe it could be an illusion, but that's not the ability, right? Shapeshifter. Person to person, not places or anything like this."

He considered her theory for a moment, weighing how much energy it would take to create something like this.

"I'd have to have like, a hundred other me's working together to pull something like this off just by illusion," he said. "And I didn't hear anyone else's thoughts until you, like there's no one else in the building - or at least for a few floors."

In fact, it had worried him at first, that he'd somehow lost his ability again.

Claire nodded, accepting Matt's explanation. "So our abilities work here." If Matt could hear thoughts, she could heal. She knew that if the government was behind this, their abilities would be the first thing to go.

"I guess I can play with this thing," she said, raising her wrist to show him that she had a bracelet, noticing that he had one too. "I didn't want to try until I knew more. It's like it's a part of me." A very annoying part that she had never agreed to.

When she glanced down at his wrist, he raised it and inspected it briefly. Great, something else he didn't want to have to deal with.

"Well, if anyone can, it would be you," he admitted, though he didn't envy the fact that it was probably going to hurt. A lot. While he was poking at the silver band, his tablet brushed against it and attached, almost like a watch.

"Whoa, okay. That's...creepy."

"There's stuff here that isn't?" Claire asked, her attention focused on the tablet and the bracelet. She kept her tablet away from her bracelet, in case he couldn't get his to separate and ended up regretting this later.

"It's like, a magnetic pull, right?" Meaning it wasn't actually stuck there for good, just for now. She didn't want hers to attach, she thought it might make it harder to get the bracelet off.

"Hello."

The speaker is a teenage girl with long blonde hair and wide eyes. She is dressed in black robes and waves brightly at Claire's hologram from her own projection. Luna has been making an effort to greet as many people as possible. It doesn't occur to her to think that her calm demeanor might be a bit unsettling.

"You've been kidnapped," she continued, in a voice that she suggested that she was talking about what she'd had for breakfast rather than a potentially life or death situation. "A lot of us are in the same situation. That's a very pretty dog. Does he have any crup in him?"

"Uh," Claire didn't know what a crup was. She did know that telling someone that they'd been kidnapped should have been ...exciting, or something. The girl in the image was acting like this was normal, at least for her, which was actually something Claire might do in a different situation. After all, it wasn't too long ago that she had been digging up graves in the middle of the desert.

"No," she shook her head to confirm this, still trying to place what kind of dog that was. With Sandra Bennet for a mother, she thought that she should probably know these things. "He's a Pomeranian, but, thanks. His name is Mr. Muggles."

She paused. "Do you know who kidnapped us?"

"Hello, Mr Muggles!" Luna said, waving a hand at the dog and addressing him as politely as she would address any human being. He didn't look very much like a crup, really, since he didn't have a forked tail. It was a very clever name, though. She would have laughed, but it wasn't a joke and so that sort of thing wouldn't be polite.

"I'm afraid I don't know who did it. Nobody does. If I could find the imps powering these machines, I'd be able to ask, but they seem to be sealed inside."

Claire smiled when Mr. Muggles barked at the image, his tail wagging excitedly. He didn't seem to like the tablet unless someone was using it to give him attention. She couldn't blame him, because she didn't know what to think of any of this yet, either.

"You think there--" she stopped, wanting to rephrase her question so that she didn't make a fool out of herself. "Can you talk to machines?"

"Of course not," said Luna, radish earrings swinging wildly as she shook her head, "But I can talk to the creatures that are powering them. They're very shy, but I'm sure they'll be fine if we're polite."

"I've never heard of creatures powering machines before," Claire admitted, confusion creeping into her voice. She wanted to think that the girl was wrong, but she knew better than to assume that it couldn't work that way somewhere. She was a long way from home in a city she had never heard of. Anything was possible.

"My name's Claire," she added, remembering that she'd given her Mr. Muggles name but not her own. "Claire Bennet."

"How else would they work?" asked Luna, in a genuinely curious voice. She had no knowledge of electricity or technology, having grown up in an entirely Wizarding family. She would have taken a Muggle Studies class if she'd realised she was going to get kidnapped by them, but that hadn't been a priority at the time.

"I'm Luna Lovegood."

"It's nice to meet you," Claire replied, unsure as to where to start on explaining how a machine could work. It was common knowledge in her world that things were run on different types of energy. "I haven't seen very many people here yet." If she could call it that, with the tablet.

"How long have you been here?"

"Oh, only a few hours," said Luna, "I think. It can be rather difficult to tell without the sun and the moon, and all of the corridors look the same. I've been walking around for quite a while."

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001: [HOLO] Cheerleader wants to go home.

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