Micah Sanders

Micah Sanders
Heroes character
Noah Gray-Cabey as Micah Sanders
First appearance	"Genesis"
Last appearance	"I Am Sylar"
Portrayed by	Noah Gray-Cabey
Information
Aliases	Rebel
Ability	Technopathy

Micah Sanders, portrayed by Noah Gray-Cabey, is a fictional character on the NBC science fiction drama series Heroes. He is the son of Niki Sanders and D.L. Hawkins. He is a child prodigy and a technopath.

Character's background

Genesis

Beginnings

Six months prior to the start of the series, Micah receives a new laptop computer from his grandfather, Hal, who is estranged from his family. When Hal notices Micah dismantling it, he loses his temper, but Niki first bids him leave their house, and then tracks him down as Jessica and beats him up, demanding that he stay away from her and Micah.

Micah is first shown in "Genesis" repairing the logicboard on his computer when Niki comes in to check on him. They are found by Linderman's agents and prepare to go on the run when Niki sees someone in the mirror who isn't her. Micah is left with Niki's friend "Texas" Tina.

In "Don't Look Back", Niki picks up Micah and drives to the desert, following a mysterious map she had found in the trunk of a car containing mangled bodies.

Following a spat between Niki and her mother-in-law in "One Giant Leap", Niki and Micah are taken by Linderman's mobster henchman.

Micah reveals his knowledge of Niki's job as a webcam stripper in "Collision", and suggests that her job is "safer on the Internet" rather than in the field, seemingly expressing knowledge that Niki plans to sleep with Nathan to save Micah.

D.L. Hawkins returns in "Better Halves" to make amends with his family for walking out on them. However, after Micah reveals Niki's secret to him, he suspects Niki is not who she is when Jessica takes over, and a fight breaks out during which D.L. takes Micah away from Niki.

On the road with D.L.

As they drive away from Niki, Micah grows angry with his father for running away, feeling that the good guys always stay to help and that only bad guys run away. D.L. insists that he is not a bad guy. On the road, they find a woman trapped in a burning car. While Micah stays behind with Ando Masahashi, D.L. and Ando's friend, Hiro Nakamura, free the woman before the car explodes. Micah is proud of his father's heroism, though they left just as police were about to arrive.

That night, Micah and D.L. stop at a motel. Micah sneaks out to call his mother, and finds a nearby pay phone that is broken. By touching it and concentrating, Micah makes the phone temporarily work and calls Niki. His mother's alternate personality, Jessica, answers, and although Micah realizes this quickly, he still tells her where he and his father are staying. He hangs up just as D.L. arrives. When D.L. asks him what he's doing, Micah insists that he was just messing around. The out of order sign on the phone and D.L.'s own inspection of it seem to satisfy him.

Eventually, Micah tells his dad that his mom is "sick" and that she seems oblivious to having an alternate personality. He urges his father to go back to Niki and help her. After admitting that he told Jessica where they are, his father rushes him into the car. However, he's not quite fast enough, and Jessica, having purchased a sniper rifle in the hopes of catching D.L. off-guard, puts a bullet through his shoulder. D.L. manages to avoid being shot again, then runs into a nearby forest with Micah while Jessica comes to assess the damage she caused. They stop and D.L. takes off his jacket, then they begin to walk backwards so their footprints will be misleading. They find an abandoned house, and Micah watches as his father phases his hand through the door and unlocks it. Micah helps his father bandage the wound, but D.L. passes out, worrying Micah. It is implied that either Micah pulled his father into the house or D.L. eventually awoke.

While Jessica searches the woods for the two, Micah begins to call out for his mom. Jessica arrives a few moments later, a gun in the waistband of her pants, happy to see Micah. As Jessica enter the house, a fight ensues between D.L. and her. Micah tries to stop Jessica, but is inadvertently pushed into a rock wall by her. As Micah cries in pain, the fighting ceases and Niki regains control of her body. The family then reconciles and walks back to the diner where D.L. was shot. Micah sits down to check his leg, which had been hurt when he was pushed into the wall. D.L. goes to check on him and tells him they were heading for a hotel. Meanwhile, Niki realizes she, or rather, Jessica, is too dangerous. When D.L. and Micah look back up, Niki is across the street, asking a police officer to arrest her for murder.

Back at home

Two weeks later, Niki is in prison awaiting trial and Micah is being raised by his father. D.L. has "[his] own style" of living which Micah finds unusual, including putting peanut butter in the refrigerator. Overall, Micah just misses his mother dearly. However, due to her imprisonment and Jessica's attempted escape, Niki isn't even allowed to hug him. Tensions between Micah and D.L. worsen as D.L. is unable to find work. Micah leaves home upset with his father and is seen in "The Fix" stealing money from automated teller machines by using his power. Micah comes home late to find D.L. worried severely. The two then agree to "try harder" at making their new arrangement work. Micah then opens his backpack and pours the money he stole onto their coffee table, saying "this should help." He then explains his power to D.L. Niki is released in "Distractions". After she comes home, Micah proposes a game of Scrabble, not realizing that he is speaking to Jessica instead of Niki. Bully, one of the Heroes graphic novels, reveals that a boy named Frank also pestered him at school. Micah asks Frank to stop, but Frank believes both Micah and his "psycho killer mom" should be in jail. Micah uses neon lights at a junkyard to scare Frank, and comes home. D.L. asks about the fight and gives Micah a sandwich as Micah admits his victory.

Taken by Linderman

In the nineteenth episode, ".07%", Mr. Linderman meets with Jessica and requests the opportunity to "borrow" Micah for unspecified reasons. Jessica denies him, not wanting Micah to get caught up in their business arrangement, and then leaves. Shortly after, Candice Wilmer impersonates Niki, and hands Micah over to Linderman, with whom he drives away. Micah is then taken to a hotel room where Candice, disguised as Niki is made to watch over him. Eventually Micah discovers that Niki is actually Candice and tries to escape. He is thwarted, however, by Candice's illusion-casting ability. He is later met by Mr. Linderman, who promises to make sure Micah's family need never worry about money again, provided that Micah cooperates. Micah agrees, and is asked to reprogram the voting machines so Nathan Petrelli wins by a landslide. From one terminal, Micah is able to reprogram every voting machine in the district, as they are all networked together, although doing so appears to take a toll on him. He is later trapped in a closet by Candice, who fights Niki in the form of Jessica. Niki uses her new superhuman strength to knock Candice out and Micah escapes with Mohinder, D.L., Molly, and Niki, using his power one more time to repair a broken elevator.

Generations

In "Kindred", after the death of his father, Micah leaves Nevada with his mother, Niki, and is brought to New Orleans, Louisiana to stay with Nana Dawson. From there, Micah has been in contact with Hana Gitelman through the Corinthian Hotel network. He quickly bonds with his cousin Monica and after she discovers her powers and he helps her figuring it out. He has a harder time with his other cousin who bullies him but manage to get in his good graces by using his powers to get pay-per-view.

In "Truth & Consequences", Damon gets Micah's backpack stolen. Micah is extremely upset because inside the backpack was a medal his father received during his time as a fireman. The medal reminded Micah of his father's heroism. Niki tells Micah that they are going to call the police, but that is not enough for him. Later that night, Monica wakes up Micah and says she knows where the robbers live. Micah watches as Monica scales their house and grabs the backpack. The robbers arrive home and hold Monica at gunpoint as she tries to hide. Micah watches in horror as the robbers force Monica into their car and drive off.

In "Powerless", Micah calls upon his mother Niki to help him rescue Monica. Micah uses his abilities to track her down, only to find Monica trapped in a building that is on fire and set to explode. Niki is able to rescue Monica, but is unable to free herself, leaving Niki trapped inside when the building explodes, killing her.

Villains

In "One of Us, One of Them", Micah, now orphaned, mourns the death of his mother in New Orleans, where he meets Tracy Strauss, a woman who looks identical to his mother. However, he realizes that the woman is not Niki. He tells Tracy about his and Niki's abilities, and uses his ability to help Tracy find the doctor that delivered her and Niki. (Niki and Tracy are triplets, separated at a young age.)

Fugitives

In "Dual", Micah is one of the posthumans that Nathan Petrelli provides information about to the President of the United States.

In "Rebellion, Part 1: Rebel Yell", which takes place during the "A Clear and Present Danger" events, he is seen helping Monica monitoring the city as they fight crime. He listens as Monica is taken by DHS's agents, and later learns that Nana and Damon were abducted as well. After entering the government network, he manages to record the fugitives being transported into the Flight 195 (which is handed over to the press by Peter Petrelli in "Exposed"), finding out all heroes were held prisoners. He then cries as he sees the plane falling down.

In "Rebellion, Part 2: Providence in a Fall of a Sparrow", which takes place during the "Trust and Blood" events, he goes to the crash site in Arkansas, and meets Sparrow Redhouse while she is escaping. Many agents finally corner them so Sparrow took them down with her terrakinesis. Later, another posthuman (Flint Gordon) tries to stop them but he got shot by agents, and there's where Micah learns they are the enemy and must fight back to find his family. In the run with Sparrow, Micah sends a message to the one who will help his cause: Claire Bennet.

In "Rebellion, Part 3: Family", Micah, whose family was torn apart before his eyes, realizes that for any hope of fighting back he would have to assemble his own army. He and Sparrow Redhouse enlist Claire Bennet's flight-empowered ex-boyfriend West Rosen and a woman named Abigail with the power to generate forcefields, and ultimately run into Claude Rains, who tells them to escape the collapsing building as he attempts to save Abigail's fiance Lee. Together, Micah, West, Sparrow, and Abigail ultimately become the resistance force known as Rebel.

In "Rebellion, Part 4: Left Behind", which takes place during "Exposed" events, the 'Rebel' team is at Building 26 at the same time Peter and Matt are, and Micah is guiding them from afar. When West meets Peter but they ignore each other and continue their respective missions, Micah realize that if he could trust Peter and Matt thing may go much smoother. After watching the team escaping the building and saving both Nana and Damon, Micah is taken down by a sniper, who turns out to be Eric Thompson Jr. ("Rebellion, Part 5: Wanted"). He wants to force Micah to search for Sabine Hazel and her newborn child, but Micah refuses because he already knows Eric is a killer like his father. Without notice, Micah controls a crane to take down an enraged Eric so the 'Rebel' team can come in and rescue him. In order to teach Thompson a lesson, Micah puts his name in every top ten wanted list in the country so he can feel what is like to be a fugitive.

In "Cold Snap", Micah outs himself as "Rebel" to Tracy Strauss. As Danko's agents close in on them, Tracy has Micah set off the sprinklers and buys him time to escape by unleashing her full cold snap on the agents, freezing herself in the process; Micah barely escapes as the snap nearly catches up to him.

In "Rebellion, Part 6: Lost and Found", 'Rebel' gets to Molly Walker in India so she can help them locating their friends and family; after her grandma convince her, she joins the "Rebellion" team and leads them to Pittsburg where they save Claude and Lee from a posthuman-prison train. After this, in "Rebellion, Part 7: The Liberation Of Saint Joan", Micah aggressively tries to make Molly talk, but she cries telling him how selfish he is for using everyone just to find Monica. Finally, Molly reveals Micah her location but with the warning that Sylar will be close enough to kill him. Without hesitation, he leads the "Rebellion" team to Washington D.C. where Monica is held hostage in an abandoned Hospital where experiments are done on her. After guiding them to Monica without being discovered, a shadowy figure haunts Micah from behind his location.

In "I Am Sylar", Danko's team locates Micah in an abandoned building in Washington DC. After they cut the power inside, Micah scrambles to pack his things and escape, only to come face to face with Sylar. Sylar is surprised that "Rebel" is just a kid, but Micah reminds him that he knows all about Sylar and can help him, claiming that the enemy side doesn't know how special Sylar is, which piques Sylar's interest. The agents are then seen chasing what seems to be Micah down to a pier; however "Micah" is really Sylar, since the real Micah (wearing the backpack) is hiding and watching. Micah later wakes up in a house and eavesdrops on a conversation between Sylar and his mother Virginia, and is shocked to see him morphing back and forth between the identities. When Sylar spots him, he regrets bringing Micah with him. Micah tells him to become Nathan Petrelli and own up to Nathan's mistakes, but Sylar instead gives him a chance to escape with his life, and that should Micah return, Sylar will kill him.

Redemption

In "Ice Queen, Part 1", sometime after meeting Sylar, Micah has encountered Tracy Strauss, who, with difficulty, convinced him to find the whereabouts of former Building 26's agents so she can make them pay for everything they have done to posthumans. Micah hesitates at first but he ends up giving her the information she wants with the condition to never kill, but he knows Tracy is not trustworthy. As stated by Micah, he has already reunited with Monica and the Rebellion team, and they continue working to make those agents stay out of their lives by "watching and warning them", which he believes Tracy is incapable of.

Powers and abilities

Micah tells a broken TV to turn on just by touching its screen ("Fight or Flight").

Micah is a technopath, which enables him to "communicate with machines and electronics".^[1] His power seems to require physical contact with the device and a certain level of concentration, after which the changes he wishes to make are almost instantaneous. Using a cell phone, Micah can bypass the need for physical contact, at least in cases where the target device is controlled by a networked computer. In season three, when Micah demonstrates his ability to Tracy, it can be seen that he does not physically touch his computer when using his ability. When asked to rig an election, for example, Micah is able to reprogram the entire voting computer network, which covers the entire city, in roughly a minute, though doing so weakens him.

He first displays his power in "Nothing to Hide", where he repairs an out of order pay phone simply by touching it. When his contact was lost and his concentration was broken, the phone no longer worked. In "The Fix", he uses his power to manipulate an automated teller machine, causing it to repeatedly eject cash in $500 increments. In "How To Stop An Exploding Man", he is able to override the security lock-down on an elevator, much impressing his new friend Molly Walker. In "Powerless", Micah resignals traffic lights, and uses a mobile phone to track Monica when he and Niki attempt to save her. Throughout "Fugitives," Micah, using the name "Rebel," has used his powers to keep in contact with several other posthumans in danger of elimination, including (but not limited to) assigning Claire Bennet to help other endangered posthumans start over, as well as hacking a government computer to send Peter Petrelli a video feed of the anti-posthuman operation to use as leverage.

In the graphic novel "Rebellion, Part 5: Wanted", Micah is able to control a crane from a considerable distance while he is held hostage by Eric Thompson Jr., and uses it to take him down, and also inform his position to the other "rebels", apparently without any physical weakness.

Micah is also exceptionally intelligent, though this has not been linked to his power. He is shown dismantling a new computer recently given to him in "Six Months Ago" and later repairing its motherboard in "Genesis". It is also stated in "Genesis" that public schools did not know how to nurture his gifts, so he was temporarily placed in a private school until his mother's lack of funds forced him to leave.

References