Eye To Eye

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f_edward_icon.gif edward_icon.gif

Scene Title Eye To Eye
Synopsis Just when you thought you had it all figured out…
Date July 13, 2009

Coney Island

Despite it's name Coney Island is a peninsula, and only formerly an island. This small piece of real-estate is the southern-most point in Brooklyn, with beachfront property abutted by the Atlantic Ocean. A neighborhood of the same name is a community of 60,000 people in the western part of the peninsula, with Seagate to its west; Brighton Beach and Manhattan Beach to its east; and the Gravesend neighborhood to the north.

This area was once a major resort and site of amusement parks that reached its peak in the early 20th century. It declined in popularity after World War II and endured years of neglect. Since the bomb, Coney Island has fallen into a tragic state of disrepair, most prominently evidenced by the closing of the amusement parks on the island, notably Astroland and Deno's Wonder Wheel Amusement Park. The latter of those two serves as a rusting and monolithic ferris wheel that overlooks the decrepit state of the island. It's once bright carnation red paint peeling to reveal rusted steel.

Much of the amusement park areas surrounding the beach are now closed off by chain-link fence, though some portions have been battered down by vandalism and portions of the closed amusement parks are now used by gangs and other unsavory figures as meeting sites. With the NYPD stretched to its limits, police rarely have the availability to respond in a timely manner to this small and remote peninsula, making it a relatively dangerous part of Brooklyn.


The street lights don't shine out here, not this close to what was once the Astroland Amusement Park. Some time after the bomb, the whole park went belly up from financial troubles and evacuations due to fallout scares. Now nothing more than the rusting metallic skeletons of the amusement park rides and closed up shops along the boardwalk, what was once the neon-lit attraction of Coney Island is now just one more open sore on New York's face.

Amidst the drizzling rain that descends from patchy clouds overhead, only one person occupies the derelict boardwalk. Seated beneath a tattered awning on a bench that overlooks the sandy beaches, he watches the surf rolling in through the rain dappled lenses of his round glasses. Across his lap, a newspaper is folded, some letters, words and numbers on one of the pages marked with lime green highlighter.

There's a strange look on his face as he finishes highlighting a pair of letters, looking back over everything that's been marked. Closing his eyes, Edward Ray reaches up to push his glasses further up the bridge of his nose, just before the sound of footsteps approach along the boardwalk, clunking with each footfall.

Folding the newspaper over and laying it down at his side, Edward Ray rises up from the bench and begins walking towards the man approaching from across the boardwalk. "Well?" It's a rather expectant tone of voice, and as the man approaching draws closer, Edward cane make out his own facial features on the figure, though more soured and lacking his glasses. Soaked from head to toe in water, he looks as though he's been — quite literally — run through the wringer.

"You were right." Older, but perhaps not wiser. The senior of the now twinned Edward Rays shakes off seawater from his sleeves. "Cardinal shot me," he wiggles one finger through a hole in his dress shirt, "you were spot on about needing the vest." The younger Edward nods at the accreditation, folding his hands behind his back as his eyes narrow behind his glasses.

"Now that he thinks you're dead, we can get moving on this." An askance glance is given to the boarded up building, then shifts blue eyes back to his older counterpart. "We've only got a few more days to get everything in order before they move on Petrelli. Are Mister Rickham and Doe moving along as planned?"

For a short time, the elder Ray stares silently at his younger counterpart, and then doesn't answer anything that was brought up. "You know… I realize the danger in working with you." With himself. "The inherent danger in allowing our paths to meet. It is, in a way, fascinating to know that so many hypothesis about time travel are being thrown out the window here. But from the moment I found the first cipher you hid in those want ads, I've been wondering something…" Edward's blue eyes narrow, water running down his forehead from his drenched hair. "Why did you decide to get in contact with me after I tried to kill you?"

A youthful smile crossed the face of Edward's counterpart, gloved hands wringing behind his back. "You and I don't have entirely dissimilar goals. It was Teodoro Laudani that helped me realize that the only way to truly win in a battle against Arthur Petrelli, is by cooperation. After spending some time in his clutches after attempting to make nice with him, I've come to be more sympathetic to your cause."

"But not wholly on board." The elder Ray notes with an inclination of his head. The younger Edward is silent on the matter, only affording his elder self a meager smile. "Given the company I've been keeping as of late, I would be surprised to have an ally who didn't also have a knife at my back, so your Judas complex is welcomed." It's only after the words have left his mouth that Edward finds the irony in them.

His younger counterpart, however, notices it immediately. "Let's get to work. I've made some projections based on what Teodoro and I last talked about, and the course of action I set him on. If we're lucky Phoenix will continue to act predictable and Teodoro will continue to pave the road to hell with good intentions." Stepping back towards the bench, and then eventually the boarded up building, the younger Edward Ray gives his older self a side-long look.

"So, how did it feel?" He asks after a pause, "Staring down the barrel of Mister Cardinal's gun?" Smugness floods from the young Edward's words, and his older self can only sneer in response, palm rubbing at his chest where a bruise remains instead of a gaping hole thanks to timely planning.

But in the end, a response does come to mind.

"It felt familiar."


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