Empathic Mimicry

Peter Petrelli (Heroes)
Much mystery surrounded Peter's status and abilities, or lack thereof, early in the series. While every main character was said outright to have a power in press releases, Peter was simply billed as "trying to convince his brother he can fly". Later, after his brother flew, Peter himself displayed the ability to levitate not long afterward. Peter is actually an empathic mimic who duplicates the powers of others. His crude levitation sketch shows that he gained Isaac's ability to draw the future, but without needing to be induced by drugs. Later, Peter visits Isaac and finishes Isaac's painting without the aid of heroin or any other drug.

Early on, Peter's duplicated powers typically only lasted while the person he was mimicking was nearby. He was unable to fly when not in the presence of Nathan, and he became visible when Claude walked away from him, but he was still able to use Isaac's precognition the day after he met him. In Distractions, he duplicated Claire's power of regeneration, even though he had not been near her for weeks; this was the first time he ever consciously "recalled" a mimicke dpower. With the help of Claude, he summons telekinesis which he wasn't even aware of having and later uses flight and space-time manipulation to escape Noah Bennet and the Haitian. After that, he starts to be able to summon powers at will.

While Peter's crude stick figure drawings originally seemed to indicate that he could duplicate only someone's powers, and not their skills, the painting he completed at Isaac's studio seems fairly well done and is later able to paint one of his own. This could indicate that his ability is maturing and developing, much like the others with powers.

After Peter first discovered his powers, he generally used one power at any given time. As he gained greater control over his ability, Peter demonstrated that he was able to access multiple powers at once.

After initially discovering his powers, Peter typically used invisibility, flight, and telekinetic powers. He managed to tap into telepathy, precognition, and unfortunately his radioactive power. After he had his mind wiped by the Haitian, Peter developed a favor for using his electrical abilities over his former telekinesis. Peter also seemed to be using telepathy much more and showed much more control and diversity (using enhanced strength, phasing, etc.) in using his powers. After activating Sylar's ability of intuitive aptitude, Peter's control was greatly refined. His telekinetic skills were enough to slice heads off, he used his electrical powers more potently, still seemed to love his invisibility, had used telepathy much more skillfully, and finally started using space-time manipulation for traveling from place to place, and also could correctly time travel.

Peter also possessed Claire's regenerative power. However, the ability is passive in nature, therefore it was always active and didn't require active concentration to use.

In Dying of the Light, all of Peter's abilities were taken away by his father.

Abilities Mimicked
Prior to having his power stolen by Arthur Petrelli, Peter was able to duplicate the abilities of other evolved humans; after he acquired the ability, he did not need to be in the person's presence. To date, Peter had conclusively duplicated the abilities of:
 * Precognition from Angela Petrelli and Isaac Mendez
 * Flight from Nathan Petrelli
 * Space-Time Manipulation from Hiro Nakamura
 * Regeneration from Claire Bennet
 * [[Telepathy] from Matt Parkman
 * Invisibility from Claude Rains
 * Telekinesis and Intuitive Aptitude from Sylar
 * Radiokinesis from Ted Sprague
 * Enhanced Strength from Niki Sanders
 * Phasing from D.L. Hawkins
 * Electrokinesis from Elle Bishop
 * Pyrokinesis from Flint Gordon, Jr.
 * Enhanced Speed from an unknown source