Stark: "Okay. No more polite probing. No more 'maybe he's friendly.'"
The sky split open in gold and white.
Tony Stark arrived like a declaration, sonic boom contained, repulsors screaming just enough to be theatrical.
The armor he wore was not subtle: layered nanotech plates braided with force-field lattices, celestial-grade dampeners humming beneath the sheen.
This was a suit designed for gods who refused to listen.
Derrick turned in midair as Stark hovered a respectful but calculated distance away from him .
"Nice entrance tin man ," Derrick said mildly.
Tony's faceplate retracted just enough to show a grin. "I get that a lot. Listen, big guy, I've beaten thunder gods, aliens with delusions of grandeur and a purple philosopher with a glove fetish"
Repulsors flared as he spoke, firing warning shots that became real shots halfway through the sentence.
" and speedsters who thought physics was optional."
Derrick didn't answer.
He just moved.
Not like a blur. Not like a dash. He folded distance inward, stepping through space in increments too small for Tony's predictive algorithms to label as motion.
Stark fired where Derrick should have been again and again each blast carving clouds into vapor.
Tony frowned. "Friday giving data on this guy?"
FRIDAY: "Trajectory modeling failing sir . Subject velocity does not conform to relativistic or quantum speed profiles."
Derrick slipped inside the repulsor arcs, palm brushing the armor not striking, not tearing.
Listening.
Then he struck.
A counteroffensive built on resonance rather than force: gravity micro-spikes pulsed through the suit's joints, electromagnetic noise injected into the nanite coordination layer, a Blacklight-derived signal mimicking internal diagnostics.
The armor screamed at itself.
For five seconds, Tony Stark's suit went blind.
Thrusters hiccupped. HUD collapsed. Repulsors died mid-charge.
" what the hell"
Derrick was already gone.
Not up. Not sideways.
Gone.
He reappeared miles away in a single breath, speed that didn't tear air or leave Shockwave, speed that made no promises to causality at all.
Tony stabilized, systems rebooting with a snarl.
"…I hate learning new things, especially regarding unknowns," he muttered.
AVENGERS TOWER – MOMENTS LATER
The Avengers watched the telemetry replay.
There were a few chuckles, nervous but fleeting.
"Tony got juked," Sam said. "That's new."
"Tony always gets juked once," Natasha replied. "Then he adapts as usual ."
The amusement died when satellite feeds updated.
Banner stiffened. "Uh. Guys?... Problem here "
The projection zoomed out, tracing Derrick's vector.
Straight toward Washington, D.C.
Toward the White House.
Steve Rogers exhaled slowly. "Okay. Now it's not funny."
Thor's grip tightened on Mjolnir. "If he seeks kings, he will find thunder."
"No," Fury cut in. "He's not seeking a king. He's sending a message."
Thor grins "then I shall it" taking off with a spin off the hammer..
ELSEWHERE – THE BAIT IS TAKEN
At the scorched airfield, sleek crimson drones descended like carrion birds.
Mr. Sinister watched through their eyes, delighted.
"Ahhh," he purred. "Residual biomass. Viral particulates. How generous."
The drones siphoned samples from the ground microscopic flecks of Blacklight residue, deliberately shed, encoded with dimensional markers far subtler than Sinister realized .
He smiled wider. "Track it. I want to know everything."
Behind the scenes, Derrick smiled too.
The sample lit up like a beacon to him.
...
KRAKOA – THE WAITING GAME
The X-Men did not mobilize.
They watched.
Beast adjusted his glasses, eyes darting across probability trees.
"He's harvesting selectively. Powers. Data. He's not here for planetary conquest."
Cyclops crossed his arms. "Yet."
Storm gazed toward the horizon. "He moves like a storm that knows where lightning will strike before the clouds form."
Jean closed her eyes, feeling Derrick's presence skim the edges of the world not hostile but also not kind.
"Collectors don't announce themselves," she said softly. "They observe. Then they choose."
High above, Derrick accelerated toward power, politics, and proximity already calculating which abilities this world hid best, and which masks would fall fastest when pressed.
Five seconds had been all he needed.
The rest of the planet would take longer.