Heroes wear Capes

Chapter 5 - Who wants superpowers?

John shrugged, "Depends what your motives are."

Trevor let out a frustrated sigh and focused his gaze on Xander, "Well, all I wanted was to say hi. I didn't know that it was such a crime." He turned to leave, but then had another thought and turned back to Xander. "Oh, also, I have to cancel our plans for tonight, Xander. Something came up with my dad's work."

Xander frowned. He knew that the notorious Paul Rossi never let his son be as involved as he would like to be in his company, so it was strange that the company's dealings affected his daily plans. Xander was curious. He knew Rossi Corp had some less than desirable business ventures, but those weren't Trevor's ideas, only his father's. If anything the situation intrigued Xander.

"Anything important?"

Trevor shrugged. "My father seems to think so."

"And that makes it even better!" John exclaimed with fake enthusiasm.

Trevor was peeved, obviously, by John's reactions. "I guess that's my cue to leave."

When Trevor left the coffee shop, Xander immediately turned on his friend.

"John, he was literally doing nothing to you."

John took a sip of his coffee, looking like he did nothing wrong. And, to him, he did do nothing wrong.

"I think it's is obnoxious nature that made me speak out," John reasoned. "I mean, when someone carries an aura of ignorance and overzealousness, it's hard not to be affected in a negative way."

Xander sighed. "Fine, you can hate the guy, but why do you have to be such as ass about it?"

John narrowed his eyes. "That's just my normal setting."

Gratefully that broke the tension between the two. They'd never been able to stay mad at each other for too long.

Xander smiled, "Now, about that recent Silver Streak sighting."

*

*

*

Xander was in way over his head.

Okay, maybe not in that deep, but he was still doing something really reckless and stupid.

See, when Xander heard Trevor was too busy with whatever his father was doing to hang out, Xander took that as Trevor giving him the liberty to find out what exactly was the business venture Paul Rossi had.

Xander had always been curious as to what Rossi Corp was doing with their fortune, but that was mostly due to his best friend's conspiracies about the place. John had reason to hate the company, so it gave him reason to think they were always up to no good. Xander was the kind of person to investigate something if it intrigued him, and John's conspiracies never failed to intrigue Xander.

Oakland High was a horrible school, there was no question. It was the reason Xander had so much free time after school. Bad schools didn't give homework to their kids, or at least hard homework.

Really, if you were looking for someone to blame for Xander's bad decision making, you could reasonably blame the horrible school district that gave all its money to Kingdom Hills and none to Oakland. If Oakland had money to pay teachers that actually cared about their students, then Xander would have no free time to do dumb things such as try and spy on Rossi Corps' business.

As far as Xander's mom knew, he was in his room studying. She was working a double shift at the nearby Super Burger, where everything they sold was themed to the ever famous supers. She was too busy dealing with teenagers ordering food names after their favorite hero or villain to know if Xander was out of the house and doing something he probably shouldn't.