Sunborn

Next Day

Nothing had happened during the school day — not visibly, at least. The hours had crawled by in an agonizingly normal rhythm. No fire alarms. No announcements. No slips or clues left in lockers or under desks. The air was thick with unanswered questions, yet nothing gave way. No secrets leaked, and no one acted out of turn. And Adrian? Too calm. Disturbingly calm. He hadn't flinched when Raj passed him in the cafeteria. His eyes didn't dart. His hands didn't fidget. He just watched — not like someone hiding something, but like someone waiting. The calmness wasn't peace; it was precision. Controlled, deliberate, unreadable. It made the absence of any real clues feel less like coincidence and more like design. Something should have cracked. But the silence around Adrian wasn't empty. It was full of intention.

The sun was long gone, and Midtown High wore its shadows like a second skin.

Raj and Peter didn't speak as they stepped off the side stairwell and slipped into the lower west hallway. It was quiet — too quiet. A janitor's cart sat abandoned near the water fountains, and the only sounds were the squeaks of their sneakers on polished tile and the low electric hum of old fluorescent lights.

Raj's heart wasn't just beating — it was warning him.

Peter slowed first. He pointed toward the narrow corridor that led to the science lab. "I can loop us back to the lab through the bio storage room," he whispered. "No cameras there."

Raj gave a sharp nod. "You've really done this before?"

"High school's a lonely place unless you make your own fun," Peter murmured. "Ned once wanted to flood the intercom with the cantina music from Star Wars during morning announcements."

Raj smirked — then stiffened. That sound again. Faint, almost imagined. A soft whirr-click. His head turned.

Nothing.

Just lockers. Lights. The silence pressing closer.

They crept down the corridor, turning a sharp left, and slipped into a darkened maintenance room. The smell of bleach and rust lingered in the air. Peter tugged open a grated panel behind the old chemical fume hood.

"I found this crawl panel in freshman year," he whispered. "Shortcut to the AV server room."

Raj stared. "You've had a Batman lair under school this whole time?"

"Don't judge me. I was a nerd with too much curiosity and a lot of free time." He ducked inside.

Raj followed, crouching as they moved through the narrow crawlspace. Dust clung to their elbows. Static buzzed faintly from old wiring. Raj felt the strange tug of his energy pulling inward again — his X-ray vision humming in and out on its own, flickering like faulty headlights.

They emerged behind the AV control wall near the back of the school — a forgotten room behind old storage shelves. The glass panel separating the AV room from the hallway was cracked at one corner.

Peter pressed two fingers to the security port.

"Still works," he said, voice low.

The lock clicked.

The door opened.

The room smelled like old textbooks, burned-out projector bulbs, and... something newer.

Raj stopped just inside.

That blinking tech signature. The one he'd seen earlier inside Adrian's jacket — it was here. A faint residue of energy drifted like dust. Something planted. Something transmitting.

He didn't say a word — just followed the hum.

Behind the AV monitor racks, near the windowless corner, Peter reached down and tapped something on the floor. A panel clicked open — loose, recently disturbed.

"Someone's been here," he whispered.

Raj knelt.

Wires. A small portable hard drive. Tamper-proof casing. Too clean. Too military.

Not StarkTech. Not Peter's DIY hacking stuff either.

Something colder.

Hydra?

Peter carefully disconnected the drive and wrapped it in a cloth. "We'll check this later. Let's keep going."

They slipped back through the hidden crawlspace and into the adjacent corridor. It wasn't far to the network server cabinet, which held the digital logs for the school's internal comms and data transfers.

Raj watched as Peter knelt again, fiddling with the old panel with practiced ease. Raj kept watch.

He wasn't imagining the feeling anymore.

Something — someone — was here.

Watching.

Just like Monica's warning. Just like the message in the locker. Just like Adrian's knowing smirk in the middle of the hallway this morning.

Peter pulled the server drive from its bay and linked it to his modified tablet. "Give me a minute."

Raj turned to the door, hand against the wall.

And then—he felt it.

Footsteps.

But not just sound — sensation.

Like someone stepping across his spine.

He activated his vision just for a moment. Through the metal lockers, through the drywall... into the janitor's closet two rooms down.

A man stood there.

No school badge. No janitor uniform.

Holding a receiver.

Earpiece. Camera on his shoulder.

Hydra.

Raj's pulse spiked. He exhaled slowly.

"Peter," he said tightly. "We need to move. Now."

Peter glanced up. "You see something?"

Raj nodded. "More like someone."

They packed up in less than ten seconds, Peter yanking the drive free, Raj pocketing it. No time to retrace their steps. They ducked out the hallway side door and bolted into the rear courtyard.

The cold air hit them like a slap.

Raj looked back just once — and saw the man from the closet step into the hallway. He didn't chase.

He just... watched.

Surveillance Van Outside Midtown

"Confirming visual," said Agent Voss, lowering his camera as Raj and Peter vanished around the building's edge. "Subject R-9 and Parker just retrieved the decoy node."

The driver nodded, face bathed in green light from the surveillance panel. "They moved faster than expected. Parker's data access is broader than we predicted."

A third voice crackled through the radio. "Do not engage. Let them take it. Phase two begins tomorrow."

Voss narrowed his eyes at the now-dark corridor window. "What about the tech trail? R-9's already starting to recognize our scent."

"That's the point," said the voice.

"We want him suspicious. We want him curious. Keep the illusion of autonomy. Let him believe he's the one peeling back the curtain."

"And when he starts looking beyond?"

Silence.

Then: "Then we give him something worth finding."

Voss shut the panel. "Adrian's still in play?"

"Yes. He'll lead them where we need them to go. The boy with the glowing blood wants answers..."

The voice grew colder.

"Let's see how he handles the wrong ones."

Back in Midtown

Raj and Peter collapsed behind a stack of wrestling mats, the stolen hard drive between them.

Raj wiped his forehead with the back of his sleeve. "That was close."

Peter was breathing hard. "No kidding. That guy — he wasn't security. And this—" he gestured at the drive "—isn't just school data."

Raj leaned back against the wall, heartbeat finally slowing.

"We're not just being watched," he said quietly. "We're being guided. Herded."

Peter looked at him. "By Adrian?"

Raj shook his head. "He's a piece. A useful one. But not the player."

Peter cracked a grin. "You've been watching too many spy thrillers."

Raj didn't smile. "I used to."

Peter sat up straighter. "So what now?"

Raj stared at the stolen device. The blinking had stopped — it was inert now.

He didn't know how to describe it, but something in him was growing sharper. Not just his powers — his instincts. The way danger moved. The rhythm of manipulation.

"Now?" Raj said. "We stop following their trail."

He looked at Peter.

"We start laying our own."

Peter gave a nod, slow and thoughtful.

Then the lights above them flickered — once.

Twice.

Raj's vision blurred briefly — and for a second, just a second, he saw something not meant to be seen.

Not with X-ray.

Not with science.

Not with his eyes at all.

A shape behind the wall.

A Hydra emblem — burning red, hidden behind layers of digital code and dead wires.

Gone as soon as it appeared.

Raj blinked hard.

Peter touched his shoulder. "You okay?"

Raj nodded faintly.

"Yes," he lied. "Just tired."

They both stood.

But as they walked into the night, Raj didn't feel tired at all.

He felt hunted.

And seen.