Yellowstone burned.
Ash drifted like black snow while sirens wailed across continents. Derrick hovered above the devastation, eyes dimming as his attention shifted inward to calculations, biomass balance, efficiency metrics.
Then the infected horde below froze as Derrick telepathically told them what to do...
Every Blacklight construct mutated hikers, half-formed brutes, blade-limbed monstrosities turned toward him in perfect unison.
Directive change.
"Converge," Derrick ordered calmly.
They sprinted ..
Dozens. Then hundreds. Then thousands.
They piled together in the center of the caldera, flesh knitting and overlapping as they obeyed without hesitation. Derrick descended slowly, landing atop the mound of loyal biomass like a fallen god surveying an altar.
His body opened
Tendrils erupted thick, bladed, humming with viral hunger. They plunged downward, spearing into the mass. Consumption followed not as chaos, but as compression.
Bones liquefied. Memories collapsed.
Biomass folded inward.
The horde vanished in seconds, reduced to raw mass and data, flooding Derrick's system.
Biomass reclaimed.
His mass stabilized. His power refined.
Derrick straightened up and eyes lifting eastward.
Next objective: intelligence.
Urban networks. Human infrastructure.
Street-level variables.
New York.
Hell's Kitchen, Night time
Derrick didn't disguise himself.
He didn't slow down.
He hit the city like a falling star, sonic boom shattering windows as he landed atop a warehouse roof in Hell's Kitchen with controlled strength . Streetlights flickered. People screamed. Cars crashed.
Derrick inhaled.
His viral senses exploded outward.
Heartbeats. Stress hormones. Weaponized posture. Criminal hierarchies mapped themselves in real time.
One signal stood out.
Heavy. Controlled. Surrounded by fear.
Wilson Fisk.
Derrick stepped off the roof and walked through the wall of the building below.
Concrete didn't resist it yielded.
Inside, Kingpin's private meeting dissolved into panic. Guards raised guns. Some fired.
Bullets flattened against Derrick's skin and dropped uselessly to the floor.
Fisk stood.
Massive. Imposing. Furious.
"Do you know who you're fucking with "
Derrick crossed the room in a blink.
One hand closed around Fisk's skull.
"Nah bro ," Derrick said grinning . "But I will soon."
Consumption was immediate.
Fisk didn't scream long enough to be remembered.
His body collapsed inward as Derrick absorbed not just flesh but info networks.
Crime routes. Bribed officials. Surveillance blind spots. And names.
Luke Cage. Danny Rand. Jessica Jones. Matt Murdock.
Street-level heroes. Localized threats. Moral variables.
Low planetary risk.
Moderate nuisance potential.
He turned as alarms began to wail across Hell's Kitchen.
Police. Media. Vigilantes.
Let them come.
Stealth could wait.
Right now, Derrick was done moving in shadows.
He stepped back into the night, eyes glowing faintly red as the city finally realized
Something far worse than a supervillain had arrived.