Jelani walked through the mist into his bedroom, the archway disappearing behind him with a soft hiss.

Vinyl records lined his off white walls next to a small make shift display of self help books and finance ones like “Securing wealth in the apocalypse (2030 edition),”

A pile of clothes slouched in one corner of the room like a defeated enemy, and his full size bed sported a basic black and white comforter set.

The 6ft mirror hanging on his wall showed him looking insane. His work uniform was shredded, acid burns and tears telling the story of his trial, but his eyes... they glowed with subtle harlequin light, marking him as something more than human. He was radiant.

"About damn time," he muttered, grinning at his reflection. Life had been kicking his ass for years. Now it was his turn to kick back.

He immediately went to the bathroom and his shower sputtered when he turned it on, water pressure deciding to play games again. He crossed his fingers and waited. After thirty seconds of weak spray, the pipes gave up entirely.

"Starting off strong huh?” Jelani whispered to himself. While waiting to see if the water would return, he opened his status scroll and flipped to the stats screen:

Name: Jelani Von

Strength: 5

Durability: 5

Speed: 5

Source: 5

Mind: 5

Stamina: 5

Current total: 30 pts | 470 pts to next rank

The numbers explained the electricity humming through his body, the sense that he could sprint for miles or take a few blows from a metal bat and be fine. He needed to find out how much each increase in a stat made him stronger. What stat build was going to be best for him?

Jelani navigated to the armory tab. Available equipment materialized in his vision like a floating catalog.

Silver gauntlets caught his attention first – curved spikes were protruding from the back of the hand and on the length of the forearms were etched runes. The description showed +15 strength and "Critical accuracy I." Cost: 10 source points. Matching leg bracers offered similar enhancements.

"Not too bad," he muttered, switching to the skills tab.

The screen split, showing his current abilities on the left:

- Hex (Level 1) - Weakens target's physical capabilities

- Enhanced Slash (Level 1) - Empowers blade strikes with source energy

The right side displayed a branching skill tree, five paths stretching outward. As he focused on each icon, a translucent silhouette appeared, demonstrating the technique:

Hex-fire (Level 1) - 5 SP

A figure conjured green flames that clung to enemies, burning both flesh and spirit.

Spectral Vision (Level 1) - 5 SP

Eyes blazing with otherworldly light, revealing hidden threats and weaknesses through walls.

Spectral Shield (Level 1) - 5 SP

Ghostly barriers forming from cosmic energy, protecting against both physical and magical attacks.

Hex-arrow (Level 1) - 5 SP

Corrupted source energy condensing into projectiles that could pierce through a target with critical precision.

Combat Veteran (Level 1) - 5 SP

A passive skill enhancing reaction time and battle instincts, drawing on ancient warrior knowledge.

"Damn, these all look good" Jelani breathed, watching the silhouettes perform their deadly dance in awe. Each skill seemed like it could lead down interesting paths.

He tried to see if he could view more of the skill tree paths but the lines stopped halfway then snapped back to the first icon when he tried to force it to move. The potential combinations made his head spin.

But source points were the limiting factor.

He was going to have to get into the field soon. But first came bureaucracy – military or RAA registration. By law every new awakened had to get registered and receive new identification marking their new status. Where you registered determined how you’d operate as a radiant and what obligations you had.

Water suddenly burst from the shower head, interrupting his planning. He started taking off his clothes and his hand instinctively checked his pocket for a phone that wasn’t there.

First things first, he needed a new phone. And transportation. Super speed would come eventually, but for now he would have to start planning for some wheels. With constant traffic a motorcycle would be his best option.

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After his short shower he threw on a black hoodie, sweats, and slides, then went looking to borrow a roommate's phone. He needed to contact his connect.

"Yo Dave," he called out. "Let me borrow your phone real quick."

Dave emerged from his room, five-foot-seven with the shape of a teddy bear and a permanent five o'clock shadow. "Oh shit, when did you get back? Sorry about that message from leasing, by the way."

Jelani frowned. "What message?"

"About... the rent?" Dave suddenly found the floor fascinating. "I' can’t cover my portion of the rent. Lost my job last week and with everything going on—"

"Come on man.." Jelani signed knowing where this was going. It’s the same story with Dave every month lately. "I don't even want to hear it right now. Me and Milo can’t keep covering for you. it’s not fair to us. We’ve got shit going on to,"

"I know, I just—" Dave's eyes widened, finally noticing Jelani's own. "Holy shit yooo, you awakened? When did—"

"Phone," Jelani cut him off. "Need to make a call."

Dave handed it over, careful to maintain a safe distance.

“And it just happened this morning,”

Jelani said knowing it wasn’t completely a lie.

“Damn, I don’t know if I should say congrats or offer my condolences,”

Jelani let out a small laugh “leaning towards celebrating but I’ve got a whole lotta shit to get in order before I do that”

He stared at the blank number pad and paused. “What the hell was Juan’s number again?” He thought. Juan was his plug and was tapped in with the underground markets. It would be a lot cheaper to get a replacement phone second hand that way. But no matter how hard he tried all he got back was his dumb expression in the reflection of Dave’s phone screen.

"Fuck, I can’t think of the number I need." Jelani didn't even look up. Could Azaron just teleport him around? Would save a lot of trouble...

He handed Dave back his phone and turned away. “Figure out your shit Dave” jelani said pretty deadpan. “Y-yeah I got you,”

“Azaron, ” he thought hoping it would get his patrons attention. He received no indication they were listening.

“Bond breaker!”

“…”

“System?”

His stomach growled, reminding him he hadn't eaten since before dying. He headed for the kitchen, temporarily disrupted by the overwhelming crater in his stomach. He swung the fridge open to an unsurprising view.

It was mostly empty but he’d hidden a food truck burrito under some old cabbage in the bottom drawer a day ago. He opened the drawer to find it was gone.

"DAVE!"

"Wasn't me!" Dave called back. Their other roommate, Milo, poked his head out of his room, freckles standing out against his pale skin and curly red hair.

"My bad," Milo said. "Stores have been empty lately. Got us on a waitlist for a box from the community garden but..." He trailed off as Jelani's eyes flared brighter. “Woahhh, dude you awakened?!”

“Yes this morning. Why did you eat my shit Milo? Fuck! I’d expect this from Dave not you,”

"My bad bro, I was going to replace it. You're usually so busy on weekends..."

Jelani counted to ten in his head, he reminded himself that testing his new strength on his roommates was probably not cool. "One of you is taking me to get food. Now."

They exchanged looks before Milo grabbed his keys.

***

Jelani slid back into Milo's Civic, clutching a $25 footlong and his "new" phone – a five-year-old model that had still cost him several hundred dollars. The plaza's massive banners caught his eye as they pulled out: "Serve Your Species - Join the Military Today!" and "Recently Awakened? Become an Enforcer at Cop City!"

"So about Dave..," Milo said, merging into traffic. " What are we doing about his portion of the rent?"

"Man..." Jelani unwrapped his sandwich, mentally calculating how to make it last all day. "I'm tired of this every month. You got anything to put towards it?"

"Had some money set aside for art supplies, but..." Milo sighed. "The new electrified fence might be trash, but it's better than nothing."

"Better than nothing?" Jelani snorted. "Didn't stop that low-rank monster from turning ms. Valery every way but loose last month. I heard from somebody that their rent-a-radiant was too busy on Netflix to notice,"

“Yeah may she rest in peace.. she used to always stop by every Tuesday to bring everyone fresh baked cookies, they were ass but she was sweet” Milo mused with his eyes on the road.

“Dave’s ass would always finish them though.. why can’t this nigga keep a job? We helped him get so many opportunities that other dudes would be happy to have right now,” Jelani said feeling frustration rise in his chest.

"I know, but..." Milo drummed his fingers on the steering wheel, a nervous habit. "His aunt and uncle both died last week. Hospitals are so backed up, they couldn't get proper treatment after that vortex break in east point last weak. Just... bled out in the waiting room."

Jelani paused mid-bite. "Shit. I didn't know."

"Yeah. My friend Sarah – she's a nurse at Grady – says it's getting worse. They're losing people every minute just because they can't get to everyone. She's thinking about quitting, says the trauma's too much." Milo's voice dropped lower.

Jelani glanced over at Milo seeing the slight glaze in his eyes. “Are you good? How you holding up?”

“I’m good bro,” Milo forced a laugh. “This isn’t about me right now, the whole planet is going through it,” Milo blinked hard and awkwardly started looking away from Jelani.

“I know but there’s a lot of weight in the air lately and you’re the type to feel you need to carry it. You shouldn’t do that,” Jelani said with sincerity before taking another well placed bite of his sandwich.

“Yeah.. easier said then done when it could be any of us at any moment now, we need a change.”

Jelani took another bite of his sandwich as military recruitment ads blared through the speakers, only to be interrupted by breaking news.

"Mayor Williams has announced an emergency press conference with Police Chief Cauckbaum to address the recent surge in radiant violence, specifically yesterday's devastating incident downtown. Many have yet again called for an awakened draft to be enforced. The assailants have been identified as members of the group YK5 who are—"

Jelani's jaw tightened. There local officials were up to something, he was sure of it. But he couldn't go poking around until he was stronger. Had better control of his new abilities.

"Speaking of change," Milo said, "what's your move now? Military's offering stability. Though RAA's probably more your style, even if their raid coordination's garbage lately."

"RAA. Need the flexibility."

"Bold choice I guess. Their clear rates are dropping hard. Too many squads getting wiped. The agency might get dissolved soon"

“Exactly the reason I need to get set up and registered while the choice still exists,”

Jelani thought of Azaron, of the contract binding them. "I got advantages others don't."

"That's what everyone thinks at first." Milo's voice carried no judgment. "Before reality hits."

"Reality already hit me once." Jelani touched his chest where the bullets had torn through. "I'm playing a different game now."

They fell quiet after that, letting recruitment ads fill the silence. Each thinking about survival, purpose, and what it meant to matter in a world that seemed determined to grind them down.

"East side branch?" Milo asked finally.

"Yeah." Jelani watched another military billboard scroll past. "Time to get started."