Heroes wear Capes

Chapter 9 - The birth of a vendetta

"A Potent?" Xander was confused at the name calling.

Paul Rossi's eyes held an excited light in them. "What were the chances, eh? Potents aren't exactly supers, but they hold the potential to be. As soon as an event happens to them that awakens some dormant gene and turns it on, they become supers."

"Wait, everyone has the potential to be a super." Xander argued. "It's just that some happen to get powers and others don't. Scientists haven't found any link between the people who get powers. It's all random."

Paul shook his head. "Haven't you noticed how some people can be struck by lightning and get powers while other die a horrible death? How some people die from toxic waste and others can suddenly fly? Haven't you ever wondered what made those people different? Why two people can go through the same event and only one gets extraordinary powers? It's more than random, it's genetic. We don't exactly know why yet, but certain people have a gene called PF-08, which is what the serum was originally named after. In supers the gene is turned on. You can have the gene without it ever being turned on, without ever being the wiser that you could've had powers. The scientists who you see on talk shows spurting out false facts don't have the information that some secret organizations have."

Xander was in shock. He'd never known any of this. How could the public not know this? There must've been something in place to keep this information from the public. Otherwise conspiracy theorists would've unraveled this by now.

"So, this magical serum activated this gene in me? It's why I can suddenly run insanely fast?"

The man nodded. "This is extraordinary. The serum worked, which means my research can work now. All I need is more of the serum. X can't stop me now. I need-"

Paul Rossi suddenly coughed. And then he kept coughing. It got so bad that Xander noticed a spot of blood on the man's starkly white sheets. And after hunching over, he suddenly fell back. The coughing attack had stopped, but the heart monitor on the side of him was screeching with a bright flat line running across it. Xander had seen enough TV to know that it meant his heart had ceased beating. That was never a good sign.

The door behind him burst open and Xander panicked. Paul Rossi was either dead or dying and Xander was the only other person in the room. It would look bad. In a split second decision, Xander ran out of the room at top speed. He no longer cared about blowing a few papers in the air, he had to get out of that room. There was nothing he could've done for Paul Rossi, and it was terrifying to know he was there to witness his death.

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Trevor Rossi hated Lacey Carlton for what she stood for. She was the epitome of the unfair advantages that were given to the superheroes who thought they were above normal people. Even her husband, the bow and arrow slinging vigilante, who wasn't even a real super, had the superiority complex the rest had.

And now she came sniffing, right when the CEO of her rival was injured in the hospital. It seemed kind of convenient that she'd show up right when Rossi Corp was in the middle of a crisis.

"Trevor, you seem a lot older since the last time I saw you." She greeted, smiling with a mouth full of white teeth. As the youngest inexperienced CEO of any multimillion dollar company, Lacey Carlton had a lot to prove, which meant looking perfect at all times. Trevor and his father had always been able to see past her picture perfect façade.

Trevor scowled. "The last time we met you threatened my father."

She frowned and tilted her head, "Wasn't your father the one who threatened my husband first? I believe his exact words were 'no one can respect a women who is only there as a stand in for a scoundrel of a husband.' I was only defending what was mine, Trevor, as I'm assured you would."