Marvel: Karma

The Tallus had been dormant since their arrival at the observatory—a dead weight on Dean's wrist that reminded him of every smartphone he'd ever let die at the worst possible moment. But as Blink shifted closer to examine the cosmic debris scattered around Fury's makeshift throne, the device began to hum.

Dean lifted his arm, watching as faint lines of purple energy traced across the Tallus's surface—patterns that matched Blink's own device.

"Uh..." he started, but the words died as his vision exploded with information.

[TALLUS DETECTED]

[SCANNING COMPATIBLE OPERATIVE...]

[MATCH FOUND: CLARICE FERGUSON (BLINK)]

[INITIATING CONNECTION PROTOCOL]

The System Screen materialized in his field of vision, but this time, instead of the clinical readouts he'd grown accustomed to, the interface felt... warm. Like it was genuinely excited about something.

[ALLY-BONDED: CLARICE FERGUSON (BLINK)]

[ACCESS UNLOCKED: SHARED ABILITY LINK -- TIER-0: TELEPORT PRIMING (UNSTABLE)] [NOTE: Original Power Set (Tweak/Share/Battery) is non-transferable]

"Well, that's new," Dean muttered, blinking rapidly as the display faded to a more manageable overlay.

Blink glanced up from the artifact she'd been examining—a crystalline structure that looked like frozen starlight. "What's new?"

"The Tallus just... bonded with yours? I think?" Dean held up his wrist, where the device now pulsed with a gentle purple glow. "Also, I can apparently do something called 'Teleport Priming' now."

Fury's cosmic eye flared with interest. "Show me."

Dean focused on the sensation building in his chest—like static electricity made of possibility. He reached toward empty space, and reality rippled. Not tearing like Blink's portals, but... preparing. Like the universe was clearing its throat.

"Huh." Blink's eyebrows shot up. "That's not supposed to happen."

"What's not supposed to happen?"

"You're destabilizing space for teleportation," she said, moving closer to study the fading distortion. "Making it harder for portals to form properly. Sloppy work." She paused, a slight smirk playing at her lips. "Never seen anyone botch dimensional manipulation quite like that before."

"Gee, thanks for the confidence boost."

"Hey, with enough practice, you might actually be useful." Her grin could have powered a small city. "Guess you're stuck with me, college boy."

The warmth in her voice made something in Dean's chest unclench—a tension he hadn't realized he'd been carrying since this nightmare began. For the first time since putting on the Tallus, he didn't feel completely alone.

"There's something else I need to tell you both," Dean said. "About my powers. I haven't been completely honest."

Fury's expression didn't change, but his cosmic eye seemed to focus with laser intensity. "Explain."

Dean took a breath that tasted like cosmic dust and regret. "The quiz that started all this gave me three abilities. Power Tweak, Power Sharing, and something called Karmic Battery."

"Power Tweak?" Blink's tone shifted, becoming more focused. "You can modify abilities?"

"Sort of. I can touch someone and... adjust their powers. Make them stronger, weaker, change how they work. But it's weak and drains me." Dean's throat felt dry. "Power Sharing lets me temporarily give powers to others or accept them—but only from allies. And the Karmic Battery..." He gestured helplessly. "My powers run on good deeds. The more I help people, the stronger miracles I can perform."

The observatory fell silent except for wind that shouldn't exist.

"Christ," Blink whispered. "You're a walking support system with a built-in moral compass."

"Most of the time I feel like I'm operating a spaceship with a manual written in dead languages," Dean admitted.

Fury was quiet for a long moment, his cosmic eye seeing layers Dean couldn't comprehend.

"Those aren't standard metahuman abilities," Fury said finally. "They're foundational. The kind of powers that shape how worlds work."

"Do you know who gave them to me?"

Fury's scarred features shifted into what might have been a smile if it hadn't been so weighted with cosmic knowledge. "Whatever gave you those powers operates beyond my clearance level. And I'm cleared for things that would make cosmic entities file noise complaints."

A chill ran down Dean's spine. "So, what does that mean?"

"It means you're playing in leagues that make my cosmic awareness look like a walkie-talkie," Fury said with absolute certainty.

Before Dean could fully process being a pawn in games played by entities beyond comprehension, Fury gestured toward a section of the observatory that seemed to bend space around itself.

"But right now, we have more immediate concerns."

The area was dominated by what looked like a crystalline prison—a geometric nightmare of fractured surfaces and impossible angles that hurt to look at directly. And trapped within...

Ms. MODOK.

Her massive cranium pressed against the barriers, cybernetic implants sparking with frustrated energy. But it was her scream that made Dean's blood freeze.

It wasn't just sound—it was a temporal distortion. Her voice echoed across multiple timelines simultaneously, creating a harmony of agony that suggested she was experiencing every possible version of her imprisonment at once.

"She's been like this since we captured her," Blink said quietly, her usual confidence replaced by something resembling grief. "Caught between thirteen different timelines, experiencing all of them simultaneously."

"Thirteen?" Dean asked, dreading the answer.

"That's how many realities she infected before we stopped her," Fury explained. "Each one corrupted by the Time-Eater's influence—the entity that devours entire timelines faster than new ones can be created. It turned Katherine Waynesboro's brilliance into a weapon against the very people she'd died to protect."

Dean moved closer to the prison, drawn by horrific fascination. Through the crystalline walls, he could see fragments of other timelines—glimpses of who Ms. MODOK had once been.

In one reflection, she worked alongside Bruce Banner, her face bright with scientific joy. In another, she shielded civilians from a Hulk rampage, her body broken but spirit undefeated. A third showed her accepting a Nobel Prize for gamma radiation therapy.

"She was a hero," Dean whispered.

"And the Time-Eater made all of that into a weapon," Fury said grimly. "Convinced her that humanity needed 'improvement' whether they wanted it or not. Made her believe her worst impulses were virtues."

Ms. MODOK's fractured scream echoed again, and Dean felt something twist in his chest—pity and rage that made the Tallus pulse sympathetically.

"Now she's just another ghost the Time-Eater left behind," Blink said, turning away. "A reminder of what we're really fighting."

"Can she be saved?" Dean asked, though he suspected the answer would break something inside him.

Fury's cosmic eye seemed to dim. "The corruption runs too deep. The Time-Eater doesn't just change how people think—it rewrites their fundamental nature. Even if we could remove the influence, the woman she was..." He shook his head. "That person died the moment the Time-Eater touched her reality."

Dean stared at the fractured prison, watching glimpses of Katherine Waynesboro's heroic past flicker like ghosts made of light and regret.

Then he turned away, his decision crystallizing.

"What's our next move?"

Blink and Fury exchanged a look carrying volumes of unspoken communication.

"Training," Blink said simply. "You've got power but zero control. Against something that eats time for breakfast, that's a recipe for universal extinction."

"And reconnaissance," Fury added. "The Time-Eater moves through realities systematically, consuming entire timeline clusters before reality can regenerate them. We need to figure out its pattern, predict where it'll strike next."

Dean nodded, feeling the Tallus hum with quiet approval. The device no longer felt like a burden—it felt like a tool. A key to doors he was only beginning to understand.

"Then let's get started," he said, stepping toward the portal Blink was already opening. "The multiverse isn't going to save itself."

As they stepped through the crackling purple gateway, Dean caught one last glimpse of the Unseen—alone among his artifacts and broken dreams, cosmic eye fixed on stars that spelled out the names of dead gods and impossible futures.

The portal closed with a sound like reality sighing in relief, leaving Fury alone with his eternal vigil and the fractured screams of a hero turned monster.

In the distance, something vast and hungry continued its feast on the foundations of existence itself, devouring timelines faster than the multiverse could create them, growing stronger with each reality it consumed.

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