"Despite almost being captured yourself, you look awfully calm about it, why?" Night Hunter asked as the Dual Specter in his hands dissipated into thin air.
Dr Reginald sighed, his tone changing almost immediately. "I made... A mistake."
"A mistake?"
Dr Reginald exhaled another puff of smoke and glanced into the night sky. "Look at the stars, such beautiful scenery. When there's only one star in the sky, it's like a particle of light lost in the void, deep and alone. But when there are many, aligned and connected to each other, it births a beautiful constellation. It reminds me of how Nova City was once."
"I don't follow."
"Years ago a team of scientists were working on a project that we believed to-"
"Let me guess, cure the world's most deadliest diseases, cure cancer?" It was so typical, it was like a curse that followed every person who decided to become scientists.
"Wrong, but you're not entirely wrong. At the long run it was a breakthrough we hoped to achieve moving forward and with Nex Industries resources, our dreams were closer to becoming a reality. Then it showed up."
His voice got deeper, almost like he was speaking from memories he wished he could forget.
"We call it Compound X."
From it's name and how he said it, Night Hunter could tell it wasn't something that was bring about any good.
"What's Compound X?"
"To keep it short, nothing good. We don't know what it is, but all we know is this, twenty of years ago, something breached Earth's atmosphere and charged straight for the city. It was a meteor, or so we thought, after the remains of the meteor was recovered, we discovered a certain rock. It's readings were off the charts, on it's own, it's useless."
He threw his exhausted cigarette into a trash can besides him and glanced straight at Night Hunter. "But combined with the right resources, it generates a power strong enough to completely annihilate the entire solar system or even more."
Night Hunter's eyes went wide, the entire solar system? That was too much. To make matters worse, it reminded him about the V-core from earlier.
"Wait a minute Dr Reginald, does this have anything to do with that red glowing tube from the docks?"
"Red glowing tube? Oh, you must be talking about the V-core reactor. Yes, that's right. The V-Core reactor was the end results of those scientists combining a fraction of Compound X with a biological component."
"W-what? Why the hell would they create something that?"
"Their plans were simply, find a cure for cancer, develop a more eco-friendly renewable source of energy. Then one day, something went wrong. An explosion occurred, and all the experiments were combined with each other and it created something that changed humanity forever. We called it, Gene-Matter Serum."
"How do you know all this?"
"Because." Dr Reginald pushed his glasses back up his nose. "I was the head of the scientists tasked with this experiment."
"What?"
"I only ever wanted to help this world, we humans, we live our lives each day unaware of the fact that every step we take, every move we make, it only led to our destruction. That's why I wanted to help this world, but I never intended to create it."
"What's the Gene-Matter Serum." Night Hunter asked, from the tone of his voice, it was obvious he wasn't playing around.
"A mistake."
"What's the Gene-Matter Serum Doctor!?"
Dr Reginald let out a sigh, it seemed there was no way out of it now.
"It was supposed to be used to heal this planet, but it was converted into a bio-weapon. Once injected with this serum, it enhances your muscles, rearrange your cellular density and division through synthetic protein complex. In other words, Gene-Matter Serum is a bio-weapon was used that creates super humans."
"S-superhumans?" Night Hunter stammered.
"These superheroes... These super powered villains, they are all the end results of the Gene-Matter Serum."
Almost immediately, Night Hunter rushed at the doctor, grabbing him by his shirt and pinning him to a pole.
"You're telling me, every bad thing that has happened in this city because of these heroes and villains, every deaths, every accident. It was all because of this serum!? Because of you!?" Rage coursed through every cell in his body, all along he always put the deaths of the innocent, the death of his parents on the heroes head.
But all along, it was because of the Gene-Matter Serum.
"Yes, that's right, that's my greatest sin."
"Why!? If you knew what that thing was capable of why did you let it into the world!?" The Dual Specter materialized in his hand it hummed to live, charging up every pulse energy that it could produce and he placed it on Dr Reginald's chest.
"We all have someone we care about, someone we love and wish to protect. After I created the serum, I wanted nothing more than to destroy it. But..." His eyes teared up as memories of the past resurfaced.
"But what!?"
"They threatened to kill my daughter. They already took my wife from me when I destroyed the first batch, and now they threatened to kill my daughter if I didn't create more. Is it so much to risk everything just to save the ones you love?"
Night Hunter gritted his teeth with a low grunt and released the doctor's shirt.
"Damn it..."
Dr Reginald coughed as he tried to stabilize his breathing.
"Those people that made you recreate the serum, was it Nex Industries?"
"I wish I could say yes, but it goes a lot deeper than that."
"Why did they need you to recreate the serum? Aren't the heroes they have in their arsenal enough?"
"I don't know, but one thing is for certain, it's nothing good. I won't ask what happened between you and these heroes, but I advise you don't go through with this kid. You'll only get yourself killed, what do you hope to do against these superhumans?"
"Let them come." Night Hunter turned away, he had nothing more to say. All along he thought these world's saviours were nothing more than fame lusted bastards, but now everything changed. They were just puppets in a much bigger scheme.
"I'll take them all on." He shot a grappling hook at the roof of a building and it quickly retracted, pulling him towards the roof and just like that, he left.