Villains wear Masks *sequel to Heroes Wear Capes

Chapter 10 - Secrets from the Past

"Behold! The god's chosen beverage. Tremble before the horror of Diet Coke!"

~ Percy Jackson (Son of Poseidon)

Kids do indeed grow up, Trevor thought as he stared at another tax reports of his father's. This was the life of an adult taking his father's place, finances and business meetings until you dropped dead.

Trevor sighed as he signed off on another report from months ago. The sales team always had needed Paul Rossi to confirm his financials, but now that he wasn't here anymore Trevor had to do it for him. It was boring work, especially since Paul hadn't let Trevor in on most of the business dealings he was signing off on.

A deal with the Black Tiger gang? Why had Trevor not been brought along?

He put the papers back down on his desk and put his head in his hands. Sometimes he wondered why his father couldn't have been more trusting of him before he died. How was Trevor supposed to catch Momentum and concretely connect Carlton Laboratories to hiring him to kill the CEO of their biggest corporate enemy if he was still in the dark about everything Paul had done?

Like, why had he been buying the crates of PF-08-02 from the old minions of X? What was the point of buying some boring old super soldier serum? Had he been planning on making the labs create a cure to the serum, reversing its effects and making any super made from it powerless? If so, the only known super who used that serum was Sonic, miles away in Empire City and not connected to anything to do with Rossi Corp (unless you counted the fact that the hero's best friend was the CEO of Carlton Laboratories, their main competitor).

(Actually, that theory wasn't too far-fetched.)

But, Trevor didn't think that idea was likely. Taking away Sonic's powers wouldn't necessarily slow down Carlton Laboratories in their conquest to take down Rossi Corp.

Other options included making a super soldier army (like the serum was originally intended for) and trying to make himself a super, but both would have required the people involved to be Potents, and Trevor didn't think it was possible to find enough for an army or that his father was one.

Trevor was trying to make the labs reverse engineer some anyways. Maybe he could find out why his father wanted some and use it to continue on his work.

While looking through his father's things, Trevor discovered just how deep Paul was in to researching the supers. Potents were what he called the people who didn't have superpowers, but they had the potential to gain them. It was the reason not everyone who was struck by lightning or who fell in a batch of radioactive waste got powers. The ones who died or got severely injured didn't possess the PF-08 gene. Those who did possess the gene, Potents, would acquire some superpower because of the experience. It was unknown how many people in the world possessed this gene seeing as you'd have to test the entire world for it and most people probably went through their entire life without knowing they could've been a super.

Trevor doubted his father was a Potent, it just didn't seem right.

There was a knock at the door. Trevor brightened and told the person at the other side to come in. Ian must've ended early.

His smile faded into disgust and loathing when he realized the person walking through the door had blonde, not red, hair.

"You were expecting someone else?"

Trevor narrowed his eyes. "That's none of your business."

Lacey Carlton put her hands up in defense. "Hey, I didn't mean to assume anything. I'm just here on business, as usual. Did you forget that I called to say I'd be stopping by this week?"