[ That's every kind of the last possible thing Peter wanted to hear about and yet, somehow, he's not all that surprised by it either. That doesn't make it any more pleasant, however. ]
I ended up wandering the streets after going crazy. And I dug, Pete. I dug in the asphalt, dug up my own grave and found a bomb in there. Went right down to point oh seven of a second and stopped.
Honestly? You were probably more damaging than I ever was. You told people you had an ability when you got here. You were looking for others with powers, probably cause the one you had wasn't much use on a spaceship.
There's no point being snippy with me. Not like I didn't try to tell you, but you were so busy with your one man army bullshit that you didn't want to hear any of it.
You come to me out of nowhere, bruised to fuck, tell me Dad's alive. You'd been thrown out of an eighth story window, somehow survived it without being able to heal any more. No ability at all. Nothing. Dad took them.
I didn't believe you - couldn't, without proof - and you're not gonna believe me either, are you?
[ For this exact moment in time, Peter's just going to listen but refuse to process. Because he can do that, he's done it before -- stuff it all away until later on. Down the beaten path, when he really can't take it anymore and it'll rear its ugly head back at him and demand he give up what little of his mind he has left. But on the phone with Nathan isn't the time for it and he gets back on track after all skipping a beat or two, the tone of his voice hallowing out. ]
So how'd I get one back, exactly?
[ He knows the answer to this already, doesn't he. And god, how he doesn't want to have to hear it. ]
Doesn't really matter who's the special one anymore, Nathan. Who can fly, who can't. Who lies about it.
[ This would be the point in the conversation where Peter contemplates throwing his comm against the wall. ] Maybe for you it burned to the ground but the Pinehearst I know's still up and running. But that doesn't even matter here.
Means I probably killed our father. Your Nathan. Or maybe not. Maybe he's still there, pulling all the strings. I doubt it. He'd have taken all your powers by now, same as he did my Peter.
Our father, Pete. You don't even know. But it matters. He was a monster; worse than either of us ever were. He made us, poisoned us. We didn't stand a chance.
call;
How many people saw it?
call;
[ A long pause. ]
I ended up wandering the streets after going crazy. And I dug, Pete. I dug in the asphalt, dug up my own grave and found a bomb in there. Went right down to point oh seven of a second and stopped.
call;
[ He still gives him that much. Which is something more than nothing. ]
call;
call;
call;
call;
You were the one who said it was no big deal, Nathan, not me.
call;
call;
call;
call;
Re: call;
call;
[ wait...
... ]
One?
call;
That's right, you didn't go through any of that, did you?
call;
[ Because he hasn't gone through enough already? ]
call;
There's no point being snippy with me. Not like I didn't try to tell you, but you were so busy with your one man army bullshit that you didn't want to hear any of it.
You come to me out of nowhere, bruised to fuck, tell me Dad's alive. You'd been thrown out of an eighth story window, somehow survived it without being able to heal any more. No ability at all. Nothing. Dad took them.
I didn't believe you - couldn't, without proof - and you're not gonna believe me either, are you?
call;
So how'd I get one back, exactly?
[ He knows the answer to this already, doesn't he. And god, how he doesn't want to have to hear it. ]
call;
The formula. But you already knew that, didn't you?
Pinehearst manufactured it. Dad's company.
[ He is not implicating himself in this, okay. ]
call;
[ He's this close to his limit, more than eager to hang up. ]
call;
[ Another hesitation. ]
There's something else, Pete. My power--flying? It was synthetic too. I... I wasn't born like this, Pete. Like you. You were the special one.
call;
[ This would be the point in the conversation where Peter contemplates throwing his comm against the wall. ] Maybe for you it burned to the ground but the Pinehearst I know's still up and running. But that doesn't even matter here.
Nothing does.
call;
Our father, Pete. You don't even know. But it matters. He was a monster; worse than either of us ever were. He made us, poisoned us. We didn't stand a chance.
call;
call;
Doesn't really matter, does it? Dad was evil, Pete. He needed to be stopped.
call;
call;
call;