Spider-Man's quip had barely finished echoing when it was swallowed by a ferocious roar.
"Another bug!"
Kingpin spun with terrifying speed for a man of his size. His bloodshot eyes burned with unrestrained violence as he charged Spider-Man like a runaway rhinoceros.
"Whoa! Little too enthusiastic, big guy!"
Peter's spider-sense detonated in his skull.
He planted a foot against the wall, flipping backward just as Kingpin's fist obliterated the space where his head had been.
BOOM—!
Concrete cratered.
Dust exploded outward.
"Your chatter is as irritating as your webs!" Fisk bellowed.
He tore a slab of wall free — steel reinforcement bars still embedded — and swung it downward at the airborne Spider-Man.
Before impact—
Daredevil moved.
Pain lanced through his spine, but his Billy Club snapped forward with surgical precision.
CLANG!
It struck Fisk's wrist at the nerve cluster.
Fisk snarled as his grip faltered.
Spider-Man seized the opening.
Two web-lines snapped outward — binding Fisk's eyes — then Peter yanked hard.
"Ahhh—!"
Blinded, Fisk erupted into berserk fury.
He swung the concrete slab wildly, demolishing seats, pillars, and lighting rigs like a chained titan.
On the Stage
Joren's situation was worse.
Star Platinum's fists struck the darkness like stones thrown into an ocean of ink.
No resistance.
No structure.
No substance.
Only ripples spreading across a surface that swallowed force itself.
More troubling—
the psychic shriek emanating from within the Beast.
It did not control him.
But it scraped against the mind, agitating emotion, amplifying irritation, pressing against instinct.
Infuriating.
"Do you see, Iron Fist?!"
Madam Gao's face glowed with feverish reverence.
"This is the power of a god!"
"This is the Beast!"
"It devours existence itself! It is sacred nothingness!"
"Your light is nothing before it!"
The sun?
Joren's brow twitched.
Images flickered through memory:
corpses purified to ash
• the white-clad assassin dissolving in golden radiance
• the way darkness recoiled from living solar energy
I see.
Using brute force against a concept was the mistake.
Ah.
Finally.
Joren lowered Star Platinum.
To Gao, the relentless blows stopping appeared to signal surrender.
"Yes! Accept it! Become part of it! That is your honor!"
He ignored her.
The black mass crept toward his feet, dissolving wood and steel.
Then—
he inhaled.
The first breath was gentle.
Like the first wind of spring.
The second breath deepened.
Like tides swelling under a summer moon.
The third—
light ignited.
Quinjet Command Deck
"Sir! Energy spike detected!"
The analyst's voice shook.
"Bio-readings are escalating exponentially— no, this exceeds biological parameters!"
"This resembles… stellar radiation signatures!"
On the display—
Joren's signal exploded into blinding gold.
Brighter than every other energy reading combined.
Inside the Theater
Madam Gao froze mid-breath.
Kingpin halted mid-swing.
Daredevil turned.
Spider-Man stopped moving.
Golden light filled the theater.
Warm.
Sacred.
Yet carrying overwhelming, sovereign power.
At its center stood the boy.
Golden ripples radiated from his body like solar flares made liquid.
Daredevil's senses failed to categorize it.
Spider-Man's spider-sense did not warn.
It bowed.
Even SHIELD's satellite telemetry could not define what stood before them.
The Manifestation
Star Platinum emerged.
But not as before.
No longer an unseen guardian.
No longer a spectral projection.
It possessed undeniable presence.
A titan forged from condensed sunlight.
Golden Ripple energy flowed across its form like molten dawn.
Solar patterns etched themselves across its chest and limbs — sacred geometries formed from life force and spiritual will.
Each line pulsed with the authority of the sun.
Its crimson scarf burned like a miniature nebula.
And its eyes—
two radiant suns ignited within them.
Stand and life energy had fused.
The spiritual and the vital had become one.
A manifestation not merely of power—
but of living solar will.
"Yare yare…"
Joren raised his hand.
Star Platinum mirrored the gesture.
Its golden finger pointed toward the Beast, which now churned uneasily, its surface convulsing in reaction to the radiance.
"If physical force cannot touch you…"
"Then try facing the sun."
Star Platinum moved.
Its fist, engulfed in blazing Ripple energy, became a golden meteor.
It pierced the darkness.
Solar life force collided with anti-life void.
"Yamabuki-iro Ripple Dash—!!!!"