Derrick hid deep within the canopy of the Amazon, biomass slowly reknitting, systems running silent diagnostics. Pain still echoed faintly where divine lightning and demonic law had torn through him.
Magic.
He replayed the encounters again and again. Thor. The demon and Mephisto's interest.
Then memory surfaced meta knowledge, half-forgotten trivia from a life that no longer existed.
"Sinister," Derrick murmured.
Nathaniel Essex. Genetic archivist.
A man who hoarded bloodlines the way dragons hoarded gold. If anyone on this Earth catalogued magic-adjacent mutants, demon hosts, and reality-adjacent aberrations, it was him.
And Sinister already had his sample.
Derrick vanished as he made his way to his DNA sample using viral tracking .
SINISTER'S LAB – SECONDS BEFORE SCREAMING
He appeared inside the lab without fanfare.
Alarms began to scream but too late.
Derrick knew things didn't go is way all the time so he extended his arm and detonated a controlled bio-tendril bomb.
Blacklight biomass erupted outward in fractal whips, piercing containment tanks, data cores, cryo-vaults. DNA samples of mutant blood, demonic tissue, alien grafts were all absorbed midair.
A clone of Mister Sinister turned, sneering.
"Well, aren't you the.. "
Derrick consumed him in a single motion, knowing this guy had tricks up his sleeve.
Knowledge flooded in: gene maps, psychic echoes, locations marked with obsessive interest. Mutants with problematic power classifications. Entity Hosts and Gateways generators .
One name pulsed brighter than the rest.
Master Pandemonium.
"A mutant body that summons and houses demons," Derrick said quietly. "That will do."
He left the lab in ruins, data stripped bare, Sinister's screams echoing only in memory.
MASTER PANDEMONIUM – LOS ANGELES
Martin Preston didn't feel fear often anymore.
He felt crowded, ever since he awakened this ability, a normal life was no longer on the table for him, people would run from him once they found out about what his mutation was and it was worse around Christians and other religious people.
Demons clawed at the edges of his skin, whispering, begging to be let out until the air folded and Derrick stepped into the room.
Pandemonium grinned nervously. "You're not a priest."
"No my friend ," Derrick replied. "I'm what those priests fear most, a hungry beast with no limits of morality."
Derrick stopped talking when he saw the expression change in pandemonium, as he actively used his mutation...
Demons tore free clawed, horned, burning with he'll fire but Derrick consumed them as they emerged, biomass adapting in real time to infernal energy. Pandemonium screamed as his body failed him, his greatest defense turning into an open wound.
Derrick grabbed him with a whip tendril and absorbed him whole no time wasted..
The effect was immediate.
Demonic energy threaded into Derrick's systems not in harmony yet but the general resistance was present. Low-level spells would slide off him more easily now . Binding rituals lost precision.
Fire that burned souls now burned… slower.
Not immunity just basic tolerance.
Just like sunscreen for those not adapted to sun.
"it's Incremental," Derrick said. "But still sufficient for now ."
THE ARCANE WORLD NOTICES
Sanctums flared across Earth.
The Sorcerers Supreme, the Midnight Sons, covens and circles long hidden, felt the absence where Pandemonium had been.
Something was eating magic.
Doctor Strange's hands trembled slightly.
"This isn't corruption," he said grimly. "It's assimilation on a scale unseen before ."
THE ILLUMINATI – EMERGENCY HOLOCALL
Reed Richards spoke first. "He's adapting."
Namor scowled. "Then drown him in his weaknesses before they become his strength ."
Doctor Strange shook his head. "No. Magic doesn't drown. It binds. We need layered enchantments. Concepts. Laws above his adaptive comprehension."
Black Bolt said nothing, only rubbing his chin.
Everyone understood what that silence meant.
A TRICKSTER'S INTEREST
Loki watched from elsewhere, smiling.
"A creature that steals power without reverence," he mused.
"How delightfully rude."
He snapped his fingers.
A magical beast ancient, warded, aggressive fell screaming through reality toward Earth.
Derrick fought it in the ruins of a city block, consuming it piece by piece. The beast's magic resisted, burned but left residue.
More tolerance.
Derrick looked up at the sky.
"Asgard," he whispered.
Thor's realm has many things that could boost his current magic resistance such as enemies of Thor and asgard who have been put in prisons in asgard.
A solution was forming, he would find a way to get sent to asgard as prisoner or as a viral store away..
But there's a lot to do on earth, he remembers Thor was bleeding towards the end of the one sided beat down he got...
Derrick gets a brilliant idea...
THE BLOOD OF A GOD
He returned to the battlefield in disguise as white, forgettable, local civilian in casual hiking cloths . Viral senses swept the ground and within 20 minutes of searching Derrick found it .
Right there..
A single drop of blood. Gold-tinged and very Divine.
Derrick absorbed it carefully, expecting some kind of feedback, but nothing..
The gain was microscopic 0.00001% of Thor's genome.
But it was enough for his current plans and
future key that'll be handy when he reaches asgard in the near future.
Finally, Derrick turned his attention toward his next step.
S.H.I.E.L.D. agents were everywhere.
And there was always one place you could find one.
He smiled faintly and headed for Avengers Tower as he knew if he could get his hands on any shield against he could initiate the next step..