The scent of smoke reached Raj before the sirens did.
He was walking down 5th Avenue with a backpack slung over one shoulder, hoodie up, sunglasses on despite the sun being nearly swallowed by thick gray clouds. He didn't need them to see—but more and more lately, he was realizing the world didn't need to see him.
A flash of orange lit up the sky. Not sunset—something brighter, more chaotic. Then came the sound—like a thunderclap punched through a megaphone. Glass shattered down the block.
Raj dropped the protein bar he was munching and turned toward the alley between two buildings.
More screams. Then came the heat.
He leapt.
Mid-jump, he kicked off a fire escape and launched himself onto the rooftop. The air above the city was thick and dry. His vision shifted instantly—his other vision kicking in. The skin around his eyes shimmered faintly, hidden beneath his shades.
Through brick, through metal, through smoke—he saw the chaos unfolding three blocks ahead.
A figure stood at the center of it. Shirtless. Cracked pavement beneath bare feet. Flames spiraled around his shoulders like living creatures. Fire poured from his hands, snaking up into a nearby SUV that was now nothing more than melting steel.
"Okay," Raj muttered, crouching.
He pushed off the rooftop, a soft sonic thump echoing behind him as he soared across the skyline.
The street was in chaos. Civilians fled in every direction. Some tried to help others who were stuck—others simply ran. Flames leapt from a mailbox to a streetlamp and then onto a nearby bench like an eager virus.
The fire wasn't just hot. It was conscious. Hungry.
Raj landed with a shockwave that cracked the sidewalk. Dust blasted outward.
The mutant at the center of it all turned toward him slowly. His skin was red-hot, glowing beneath the surface. Hair gone. Eyes blank. His mouth twitched, as if trying to speak but unable to form words through the fury radiating from his body.
Raj raised a hand. "Hey. You're burning down a city. Maybe… chill?"
A roar erupted from the mutant's chest, and fire exploded from his arms like twin jet engines. Raj threw his arms up, bracing for impact.
The fire hit him full-on.
It was like being inside the sun—but to Raj, it felt like… warmth.
A flare of light shimmered off his skin. The hoodie vaporized, and his shirt burst into ash. But Raj stood his ground, barely flinching, eyes glowing molten gold beneath the remnants of his sunglasses.
People watching from alleyways gasped.
The fire stopped.
The mutant looked at him in confusion. Then fury.
He launched another wave, this one more intense, twirling like a whip of white-hot plasma. Raj ducked, slid across the pavement on one knee, then sprang forward and tackled the man straight into a parked bus.
The bus bent inward like it had been hit by a wrecking ball.
Raj backed away. "Okay. You really need a cold shower."
The man rose again, growling, and the flames surged anew—but this time, Raj blinked. And he saw something beneath the skin.
Veins pulsing with energy. Heart beating out of sync. His body—unstable. Like a nuclear core on the edge of meltdown.
"Peter," Raj said under his breath, tapping the earpiece he'd clipped earlier. "It's not just fire. His body's reacting to something. A mutation? Tech? I can't tell, but he's gonna blow if we don't shut him down now."
Peter's voice crackled through. "Be careful. I'm a few blocks out. Don't provoke him."
"Too late."
The mutant raised both hands and slammed them together.
The ground buckled.
Fire pillars erupted around them in a ring—cutting off the exit. Civilians trapped inside screamed. Raj turned sharply, scanning with his heat vision.
Ten people. One family behind an SUV. Two by a food truck. A child inside a café, hiding behind a counter.
Raj's body glowed brighter. He could feel the sunlight pulsing in his blood. Weeks of absorption, tucked beneath his skin like a battery.
He had to act fast.
Raj sprinted through the fire ring. His body didn't burn—it sang. He scooped up the first trapped family, shielded them with his back as he burst through the flames and deposited them safely across the street.
One of the children stared up at him. "Are you… Superman?"
Raj paused. "Just someone who's had a lot of vitamin D."
He zipped back in.
Peter swung into the chaos mid-air, webbing flames to redirect them away from a crumbling building. "I said don't provoke him!"
Raj pointed. "He's unstable! His body's going to rupture if we don't stop the fire source!"
"I'm open to ideas!"
Raj narrowed his eyes. Behind the mutant's spine—there. A glowing node. Embedded tech. Possibly keeping the mutation active—or suppressing the part that should have burned out.
"I have to overload it," Raj said.
"You're going to punch it, aren't you?" Peter sighed.
"With the sun."
Peter groaned. "So dramatic."
Raj leapt into the air, solar energy building in his palms. It wasn't a blast—it wasn't even an attack. It was a pulse—radiant, brilliant, and focused like a beam of raw sunlight.
He brought both fists down onto the mutant's back, right over the tech node.
The result was instant.
A massive shockwave burst outward. The fire died immediately, sucked back into the mutant's body like a reversed explosion. The man collapsed, unconscious, steam rising from his skin.
The street was quiet again.
People stared.
Raj stood in the center of it, shirtless, glowing faintly, steam rising off his arms. For a moment—just a moment—he looked like a god stepping out of the storm.
Peter walked over, casually webbing the mutant's arms to the sidewalk.
"That was reckless," Peter said.
"You're welcome," Raj replied, not looking at him.
"You alright?"
Raj finally turned. "I don't think I'm a high school kid anymore."
Peter paused, looking at him, then nodded. "You're not. Not just that, anyway."
Behind them, sirens echoed closer.
Raj looked down at the unconscious mutant, then back at the people watching—recording, whispering, already turning him into something else.