Director Shaw's expertly designed office made Oscar feel slightly uncomfortable. Though, Apex's arrival just half an hour ago might have had something to do with that.

White chairs and sofas decorated the carpeted floor. The group of teenagers all took up a seat. Oscar sat in a rather plush looking loveseat and examined the dark blue pillow sitting against the pale leather. The Atlas logo was stitched into the material.

''These guys sure do like to brand everything,'' he said under his breath.

On the left side of the room, sunlight poured in through the large set of windows that consumed an entire wall of the office. The others occupied themselves quietly as they waited for the director of Atlas to speak.

The man sat behind his desk. His wiry hands were clasped together tightly, and his lips formed a taut line as he glared at his fingernails. Oscar noticed his entire demeanor seemed hesitant. There was something he was holding from them. And judging from what Apex called the man earlier, they were missing some pretty important background info.

''So...'' Oscar trailed off. ''That was weird back there right?''

Everyone nodded and mumbled in agreeance. They were still stunned from what happened. Exhaling, the fire-throwing teen slouched into his seat. Chase, who opted not to sit and instead leaned against the window, snorted. He cut his glare to Director Shaw. His blue eyes crackled like embers of a fire.

''We need answers, sir.''

Oscar pointed his thumb at the blond. ''What Goldilocks said.''

Shaw sighed but nodded. ''I suppose this situation does warrant an explanation.''

Emily laughed. ''You think?'' The man shook his head at her. ''So, is that psycho ninja really your soon? Because if so, you've got one fucked up kid.''

''Emily,'' Stella warned.

''What? I'm not wrong.''

The director of Atlas nodded. An aura of shame formed a cage around him. Rubbing his forehead, he let out a dejected sigh.

''I didn't want to believe it was him," he said, his voice quavering. ''A couple of years ago when Kismet first became active, I received reports about a Prime with activated abilities working for them. At first, I was led to believe it was just some mercenary that Kane somehow managed to infect with the Primonium but after further investigation, I realized that wasn't the case.''

Oscar remembered the name Shaw called Apex earlier. He couldn't help but notice the similarities between the name of the man's other child, Victoria. He almost snorted at his terrible children-naming skills.

Though, he figured the similarities in their names was fitting. They did share certain personality traits; both were colder than a frozen tundra in Antarctica and were more badass than the villain in an action movie. The only difference was that Victoria was much cuter than her brother. But if the crazy genes ran in the family, he wasn't sure if he wanted any part in that.

''How old is Baby Shaw anyways?''

''It's Victor. And he's twenty-five.''

Theo tilted his head at the man. ''Wait, then how old are you then? Like, sixty? Seventy?'' The group stifled their laughs. Oscar wasn't sure if his questions were meant to be comical or if they were serious. Either way, he enjoyed the bewildered look they elicited from Director Shaw.

''I don't look that old do I?" Director Shaw rubbed his weathered face.

Oscar wondered if there were any more members to the Shaw family that he should know about. He didn't want any more teleporting ninjas showing up out of nowhere. He'd experienced enough of that to last him a lifetime. He glanced at the man's hand in search of a ring. A wedding band sat coiled around his ring finger.

''You're married?'' he asked.

His brow furrowed as he stared at the boy. Fear washed over her as he peered into his crystalline eyes. ''Yes.'' He cleared his throat, his eyes starting to tear up a bit. ''Well, I was.''

''What happened?'' Emily blurted.

''Emily...'' Stella cautiously looked between her and the misty-eyed business man.

Director Shaw waved the girl's warning away. ''It's fine, honestly.'' He turned his attention to the asker of the dreaded question. ''She was killed trying to save our son a long time ago.'' Oscar had the urge to delve deeper into the story, but judging by the look on the man's face, he decided that wasn't the best of ideas. He kept his questions to himself and pulled out his lighter.

The entire office went silent as if someone pressed the mute button on the cosmic remote. He didn't find that surprising, though. Discussing the death of your spouse and the disappearance of your first child isn't the type of conversation that brought life to a room. If anyone asked him about his own family, he was sure he'd break down in tears or catch on fire. Probably both.

''Why'd you think your son was dead?'' Chase finally said. ''What happened to him?''

The director removed his glasses and set them down on his desk. Oscar noticed the creases blemishing his skin. Despite appearing to be in his early fifties, he was beginning to look much older than that. His short, raven hair was even starting to gray at the tips. He assumed it was direct effect from running a top-secret company tasked with bringing down a dangerous terrorist organization who wanted to release a deadly pathogen into the atmosphere.

Not to mention the fact that he also had to train six unruly teenagers with superpowers.

''He was taken from me by Kane a decade ago,'' he answered. Clearing his throat, he averted his eyes from the group. ''Who also used to be my business partner.''

Oscar flinched. ''Que?''

Theo's eyes widened. ''Partner? Kane was your partner? The Kane? The one who tried to capture and experiment us? That Kane?''

Director Shaw ran a hand down his face. ''If you all are going to continue asking me questions, please do not repeat my answers every time I say them.'' Theo smiled sheepishly at the man.

''You know Kane too?'' Chase shook his head. ''Unbelievable.''

''This just keeps getting better and better,'' Emily quipped. Even Andre looked bewildered at this new piece of information.

The man nodded, a wistful look passing over his face like a dark cloud. ''We founded Atlas together—at least the first iteration of it. We weren't always military.''

Oscar's scrunched his brows together. The thought of Director Shaw willingly going into business with a man like Kane curdled his stomach worse than spoiled milk could've.

''He was the scientist while I was the businessman. I had the manpower and he had all the ideas. He led the research division of the company while I made us money by taking different military-oriented jobs. Eventually, he discovered the Primonium element and we studied it. After realizing that the element could grant people superhuman abilities due to a very rare mutation, Kane wanted to test it out on people.

''We started with animals, but progress wasn't going fast enough for him. The company grew in stature and our board of directors didn't allow human trials. After a few years, he finally got the approval to seek a few paid volunteers. Though, none of our efforts were successful because most of our subjects didn't possess a high concentration of the mutation in their DNA.''

Oscar whistled in awe. If being a Prime was as rare as it was, it was a miracle that himself and the five others around him happened to all be in the same place at the same time. Part of him wanted to believe it was a mere coincidence but that was foolish thinking. Something bigger was at play. It could've been destiny for all he knew.

''Why did Kane take your son?'' Stella inquired, trying to steer the conversation back to the original question.

''For a long while, he couldn't find anyone with the right amount of the Prime gene, which is what we started calling it,'' Director Shaw said. ''One day Victor got blood work done at our lab.''

Oscar slowly put the pieces together.

''And Kane examined it.''

Shaw nodded, a solemn look clouding his eyes. ''We were desperate to see how the Primonium would react to someone who had a high percentage of the Prime gene code. He seduced me with dreams of a better world with better humans. I figured it wouldn't hurt to just see. So, I allowed him to test my son's blood.''

''And he had it,'' Andre guessed.

''Kane immediately wanted to experiment on him, but Victor's mother wouldn't allow it,'' the director continued.

Emily squinted at him. ''But you did it anyway.''

He turned away from her, his jaw taut. ''The video will explain the rest.''

His fingers flitted across the touchscreen keys covering a portion of his desk. Seconds later, a file containing multiple video thumbnails opened on a screen at the other end of the room. The man selected one of the black rectangles labeled ''December 18th, 2003''.

The video's quality reminded Oscar of the old VCR-tapes he'd watch at his abuela's house when he was a child. On the archived tape, two men wearing lab coats stood in front of a large, glass cylinder, similar to the ones the six Primes were tested in when they first arrived at the Atlas compound.

Oscar's nearly choked on his own spit upon recognizing the two men. The one closest to the glass tube had long silver hair. The other was tall and possessed raven-colored hair. Their faces, albeit much younger, were incredibly familiar.

It was Kane and Pearce Shaw.

Inside of the tube was a scrawny looking kid with locks of black hair falling into his pale face. He wore a black bio-suit with crimson lines spanning down the arms, torso, and legs. The lines on his suit weren't like Oscar's, despite being of a similar color. No. His looked like blood.

It was Victor Shaw. He couldn't have been any older than ten during the time of the video.

As the video played, a semi-transparent gas seemed to enter the cylinder, surrounding Apex, or Victor as he was probably called back then. As the gas touched his skin, he dropped to the ground and writhed in pain. While Director Shaw rushed over to his child, Kane simply stood near the control deck with disappointment on his wretched face.

Oscar watched on in horror.

As he watched Victor rolling on the ground of the glass tube, he couldn't help but feel sorry for him. Even through the terrible quality of the video, he could see the agony on the boy's face as the Primonium infiltrated his system.

''P.A.I, stop the video please,'' Director Shaw croaked while wiping his eyes. The screen shut off as soon as the words were spoken. ''The Primonium didn't react in the way Kane anticipated and my son was placed on life support for a couple of days. We thought he was surely going to die. My wife hadn't spoken to me in weeks. The board of the company eventually found out and I was forced to remove Kane from the company. In retaliation, Kane stole my comatose son and murdered my wife in the process.''

That made this entire Atlas versus Kismet conflict a lot more personal.

''How could you experiment on your own son?'' Stella asked. She looked distraught, her hazel eyes glaring back at the man. Emily nodded. It even seemed like the two of them were agreeing.

Director Shaw sighed while pinching the bridge of his nose. ''Do you think I wanted to test on him? Victor was young when we did it. He was impressionable and overly ambitious, just like I once was. Kane manipulated him and made him believe that we could turn him into something great. Victor insisted that we test on him. He ignored all my warnings.''

Oscar noticed a pained look settling onto his features, almost as if he was slowly peeling a deep scab away.

In a way, he was.

''I loved my son.'' He cleared his throat. ''I still love him.''

Chase didn't seem to be angry anymore. In fact, he left his post by the window and journeyed over to the director's desk. He placed a hand on his shoulder and nodded curtly. ''It's alright, sir. We understand.''

''Kane really is a bad guy. Like a legitimate bad guy,'' Theo said. Oscar was coming to that realization as well. It was one thing to commit illegal acts but to knowingly manipulate the child of your friend for your own personal gain seemed particularly despicable to him.

Before, he had no idea why Chase and Emily were so adamant about taking down Kane and his band of psycho soldiers. Of course, they needed to be brought to justice, but he didn't think they needed to be the ones to do it. But now he did. Because now he truly knew what Kane was capable of.

And he needed to be stopped.

''So...what are you going to do now?'' Stella asked. ''You know, with Victor being here now.''

Director Shaw put his glasses back on and stood up. ''We will keep him here in the small jail we have underneath the facility.''

Theo quirked an eyebrow at Stephen. ''Wait, wait. You have an underground prison?''

He frowned at him. ''Didn't I say don't repeat everything I say?''

Oscar smirked. ''So, you're telling us you don't want us to repeat everything you say?'' He figured a few jokes would've done them all some good, especially after what just happened.

''Anyways,'' He continued after glaring at the two boys. ''Yes, there is a small prison underneath the facility. It's just a few cells we have in case we need to hold some particularly bad people. We call it the Grid.''

Emily tilted her head at him. ''There seems to be a lot of things that we don't know.''

The director shrugged. ''You just have to ask the right questions.''

''Well, wondering if there's a prison underneath the place you're living in isn't really a question that comes up often.'' The blond refolded across his chest.

''He's got a point,'' Andre quipped.

Oscar gawked at Andre, pressing his palms to his cheeks as he imitated the famous Scream painting. ''Guys. He said more than three words today.''

Andre glared at him. ''Watch it, Scorcho— ''

Oscar laughed. ''Seriously? Scorcho? That's not even how you say that in Spanish— ''

''Boys,'' Director Shaw interrupted. ''Please.'' He pinched the bridge of his. Oscar pretended to zip his mouth and Andre slouched into his chair. The rest of the group simply laughed at the two of them. A few minutes later, they settled down and Stella posed another question.

''Why do you think he turned himself in? He must have some ulterior motive. He wouldn't just turn himself in for no reason.''

The CEO of Atlas rubbed his chin. ''I'm aware of that. We have upped the security in and around the facility, keeping watch for any Kismet members. From what the agents who found Victor said, he hadn't found the facility yet. I'd say the same applies to the rest of Kismet. But if they have found us, we'll be prepared for an attack.'' He stood up and equipped his suit jacket. ''If you'll excuse me, I have some things to take care of. I'm sure you understand.''

They all nodded. He quickly thanked them before leaving the room.

A little while after he exited the office, Chase shook his head.

''Something's going on here,'' he said. ''And I don't like it.''

Emily chuckled. ''You think? We need to keep an eye on Apex. He obviously came here for something.''

''I don't know guys,'' Stella said. ''The Atlas agents can look after him probably better than we can. We should just leave it alone. Remember the last time when we meddled with something we had no business in?''

''That was different.'' Emily sent the other girl a sideways glance. ''Besides, it wouldn't hurt to just check up on him.''

Chase nodded. ''I like that idea. Emily and I will take turns checking up on him every now and then.'' He looked at Emily. ''Agreed?"

Shaking her head, she scoffed at his question. ''What're you crazy? I'm not going in there alone. I don't care how much security there is.''

''Thought you were a bad-ass?'' Oscar said with a raised eyebrow.

She pointed a finger at him, her eyes dark. ''Watch it, Scorcho.''

He frowned at what sounded like his nickname. Now he and Chase had terrible monikers; the blond was Goldilocks and Oscar was apparently Scorcho. He decided to make it his mission to create equally horrible names for everyone else. He wouldn't allow himself to suffer alone.

Chase rolled his eyes at Emily. ''Fine. I'll do it.''

With that matter decided, the six of them exited Director Shaw's office. As Oscar trudged down the hallway, the soreness from the day's earlier training session began to dawn on him. Cursing in Spanish, he rubbed his aching muscles.

''Curse you, Agent Strong,'' he mumbled, quietly cursing out their training as he continued towards the elevator.