I've got that figured out. He has a power related to system analysis. Think about it. If he can look at a system, any system, and see how it works, and then be able to alter that system so taht it works in another way, in essence "fising" it, then he can open up someone's brain, see how it works, and then reconfigure his own to work the same way. So Sylar (or do I mean Gabriel, hehehehehe) gets his hands on this guy with TK and frags him up, then "fixes" his own brain so that he is special (and not the boring, mundane clock-maker) like his victim. Then he is no longer this putz that no one cares about. He is now special. But he wants to be "all he can be", so he tracks down another special person and "upgrades" himself, all the while believing that he is fixxing a flaw in himself. As this progresses, he gets more and more powerfull.
My only question is: how is he going to kill the Hatian? You know he'll have to if he wants to escaped Mr. Bennet's custody.
Gabriel (or was that Sylear???)