The city was quiet now, but Raj's ears still rang with the echo of the battle. Craters marked the pavement where energy had exploded. The rooftop edge was scorched where the mutant had stood moments before disappearing.
Peter stood a few steps away, arms crossed, eyes on the sky as if waiting for something—or someone—to return.
Raj slowly exhaled. "He's gone."
Peter nodded, cautious. "Yeah. But that didn't feel like some rogue meta. That guy was too… prepared. Like he knew exactly who to target."
Raj's gaze drifted downward, to his hands. Faint golden cracks glowed beneath his skin, as if some part of the solar energy hadn't quite settled. "I didn't even get his name."
Peter tilted his head. "You're still thinking this is random?"
"No," Raj murmured. "I'm thinking this is a test."
Peter met his eyes. "And I don't like being tested."
They walked toward the fire escape in silence, footsteps muted by the soft metallic clinks of settling debris. The city lights below flickered back to life—somewhere, power was returning.
Halfway down, Raj paused. "Did you notice? He didn't try to kill me."
Peter blinked. "Excuse me?"
"He could've gone full force. His power was ridiculous. But it felt… restrained. Like he was studying me."
Peter nodded.
Below, sirens wailed in the distance—too far to be connected. Midtown slept unaware of what had just happened above its head.
Raj's voice was quieter now. "I think we just became interesting."
Hydra Observation Deck
The screen flickered with static, then settled. Raj's image—half-lit, half-shadow—stood at the center of a digital frame. His glowing pulse, his defensive stance, the split-second before the mutant vanished.
A man in a black coat leaned forward, fingers steepled.
"He didn't unleash full strength," a voice commented behind him.
"No," the man agreed. "But what he did show… that shielding maneuver, that golden kinetic flare… even the body's reaction speed. That wasn't a mutation."
Another agent, younger, tapped on a tablet. "Scans show elevated solar retention levels. He's storing energy at an exponential rate. No known Earth-born anomaly matches his pattern."
"So we agree?" the man asked, slowly rising.
There was silence.
Then: "Yes. He's a candidate."
The man turned toward a wall lined with weapons. "Upgrade the file. From 'Monitor' to 'Asset Potential.'"
"Name?"
He smiled grimly. "Let's call him… Solari."
Back in Raj's Room — Just Past Midnight
Raj didn't sleep.
He sat cross-legged on his bed, shirt off, as soft golden light rose and fell over his skin like breathing.
His window was open, but no wind came in. The city outside felt too still.
He had questions—hundreds of them. What did they want from him? Why now? And why did it feel like every step he took only led to more uncertainty?
His phone buzzed. Peter.
"You okay?"
He typed back.
"Still glowing. Not exploding. Progress?"
Peter replied with a thumbs-up emoji, then another.
"Also: we need a name for you. 'Raj the Radiant'?"
Raj rolled his eyes and set the phone down with a small smile. That faded fast.
Because beneath the smile, beneath the new powers, was something darker.
The mutant hadn't looked at him like an enemy.
He'd looked at him like a product.
And that terrified him more than anything.
The Desert, New Mexico
The sky split open like it had been punched from the inside.
In a remote corner of the New Mexico desert, lightning danced through clouds that had no business existing in the dry air. A crater exploded outward, scattering sand and stones into the night.
When the dust cleared, it was there.
A hammer.
Short, heavy, ancient. Etched with glowing Norse symbols. The moment it hit, the winds stopped.
And deep underground, in a secure base buried beneath rock and silence, sirens began to scream.
A woman in a sharp black suit stared at the screen. "Notify Director Fury."
Another agent blinked. "What should I say?"
She narrowed her eyes. "Tell him we've found something that doesn't want to be found."
And far away, the hammer sat in its crater, untouched, pulsing softly with power. Waiting.