Peter/Syler's powers.

[jbrcks]

Can Peter and Syler absorb the traits and talents of others that are not special powers?

When peter first absorbed Issac's talent and drew his stick figure drawing he wasn't really aware of what he was doing. But later when he was with Issac he was able to finish the painting with reasonable skill.

And Syler; in the first episode Mohinder is talking about how resilient cockroaches are. When Syler is caught and being held at Primatech, we see him notice a cockroach crawling across the floor and HRG comments on how much sedative it takes to keep Syler under.

So it seems like Peter's and Syler's abalitie allows them to inherit traits from other people/species without any special power.

[angeloo]

peters an empath he can have there power if he gets close enough, and sylar gets his powers from killing them somehow, sylars special power is he sees how things work and peters is empath. and the cockroaches i think just mean them adapting and using there powers to full potential, like mat was in the room when a cockroach passed by then all of a sudden he hears HRG then they escape

[bobsuncorp]

I don't remember Syler performing a lobotomy on a cockroach...

Seriously though, I think the sedative comment was just intended to show how formidable an opponent Syler is, a good writing tool that was also used when he overcame the curare Mohinder used on him in whatever the episode was called.