Marcus had been in the MCU for exactly one month, and he had accomplished the following:
Established seventeen different monster identities across New York CityDriven Nick Fury's blood pressure to medically concerning levelsConvinced three separate criminal organizations that the city was haunted by judgment spiritsSent the Avengers Kuriboh plushiesHad a heart-to-heart with Daredevil about the nature of heroism while wearing golden armorEaten an absolutely unreasonable amount of New York pizza
It had been, by any metric, an excellent month.
But Marcus was getting restless. The street-level crime stuff was fun, don't get him wrong—there was nothing quite like the look on a mugger's face when a Blue-Eyes White Dragon materialized in an alleyway and demanded they reconsider their life choices. But he was starting to feel like he was thinking too small.
He had the power to become ANYTHING from Yu-Gi-Oh. That included some of the most powerful beings in the entire franchise. Dragons that could level cities. Spellcasters with reality-warping abilities. LITERAL GODS.
And he was using this power to stop convenience store robberies.
"I need to think bigger," Marcus muttered to himself, pacing around his abandoned apartment. "Not, like, EVIL bigger. But definitely more... impactful."
He'd been avoiding direct contact with the Avengers for a reason. They were too organized, too well-resourced, too likely to actually figure him out if he gave them enough data points. His strategy so far had been to stay in their peripheral vision—present enough to be noticed, mysterious enough to be frustrating.
But maybe it was time to change that.
Maybe it was time for a proper introduction.
Marcus thought about what kind of impression he wanted to make. The Avengers had seen his work—the various monster sightings, the criminals turned in, the general chaos. They knew he was powerful and unpredictable. But they didn't RESPECT him yet. Not really. To them, he was probably just a weird anomaly, a puzzle to be solved.
He needed to show them something that would make them take him seriously.
He needed to do something DRAMATIC.
"What's the most dramatic thing I could possibly do?" Marcus asked himself, staring at the ceiling. "Show up as Exodia? No, that's overkill. I'd probably cause a panic. Egyptian God Cards? Same problem. I need something impressive but not apocalyptic. Something that says 'I am extremely powerful and you should listen to me' without also saying 'I could destroy the Eastern seaboard if I wanted to.'"
He mentally scrolled through his catalog of available monsters.
And then he remembered Cyber Eternity Dragon.
Marcus sat up so fast he nearly gave himself whiplash.
Cyber Eternity Dragon was PERFECT.
In the lore, Cyber Eternity Dragon was the ultimate evolution of the Cyber Dragon archetype—a mechanical dragon of such immense power that it existed partially outside normal space-time. It was practically immortal, capable of regenerating from almost any damage, and its presence alone could warp reality around it. More importantly, it looked absolutely INCREDIBLE: a massive serpentine dragon made of gleaming metal and pulsing energy, all chrome and light and technological perfection.
If he showed up to Avengers Tower as Cyber Eternity Dragon, they would absolutely lose their minds.
Tony Stark especially.
Tony Stark, genius inventor and creator of the Iron Man armor, confronted with a dragon that was basically EVERYTHING he'd ever dreamed of building, except it was alive and sentient and also currently judging him.
"Oh," Marcus breathed. "Oh, this is going to be BEAUTIFUL."
But he needed more than just a cool entrance. He needed a MESSAGE. Something that would establish him as more than just a random chaos agent. Something that would make the Avengers understand that he knew things they didn't—that he could be a valuable ally if they played their cards right.
He needed to give them a prophecy.
A prophecy about Thanos.
Marcus started giggling.
This was going to be SO GOOD.
Avengers Tower
The Next Day
2:47 PM
The Avengers were in the middle of a strategy meeting when JARVIS interrupted.
"Sir, I'm detecting an unusual energy signature approaching the tower."
Tony looked up from the tactical display he'd been reviewing. "Unusual how?"
"It appears to be... mechanical in nature, but with biological components. And it's quite large." A pause. "Very large, sir. Approximately sixty meters in length."
Everyone in the room went very still.
"Sixty meters," Steve repeated slowly. "That's..."
"About the size of a small building," Bruce finished, his face going pale. "JARVIS, what exactly is approaching?"
"Unknown, Dr. Banner. The energy signature doesn't match anything in my databases. However, based on visual analysis..."
The main screen flickered to life, showing the feed from the tower's external cameras.
The room went completely silent.
A dragon was flying toward Avengers Tower.
Not just any dragon—a dragon that looked like it had been designed by Tony Stark in a fever dream. Its body was a serpentine coil of chrome and silver, segmented plates of metal flowing into each other like liquid mercury. Veins of blue-white energy pulsed along its length, visible even from a distance. Its head was a masterwork of mechanical engineering, all sharp angles and glowing eyes and what appeared to be enough processing power to run a small country.
It was beautiful.
It was terrifying.
It was heading straight for them.
"Battle stations," Steve said automatically, already moving.
"Wait." Tony held up a hand, his eyes fixed on the screen with an intensity that bordered on obsession. "Wait. Look at it. LOOK at it. That's not a natural creature and it's not conventional technology. That's something else entirely. Something..."
"Something from that card game?" Clint suggested, his hand hovering near his bow.
Tony's eyes widened. "JARVIS, cross-reference with the Yu-Gi-Oh database we compiled."
"Already done, sir. The creature matches the description of a card called 'Cyber Eternity Dragon.' According to the game's lore, it is the ultimate evolution of the Cyber Dragon archetype—a mechanical dragon that exists partially outside normal space-time and is considered effectively immortal."
"Immortal," Bruce repeated faintly.
"JARVIS, can we hurt it?"
"Unknown, sir. The lore suggests it can regenerate from virtually any damage and is immune to most forms of destruction. However, this may not translate directly to reality."
"Great. So we're looking at a potentially unkillable mechanical dragon that's about to land on our building." Tony was already heading for his armor. "This is fine. This is totally fine."
"Sir, the creature appears to be... slowing down."
Everyone looked at the screen again.
The dragon—Cyber Eternity Dragon—had indeed slowed its approach. Instead of the aggressive dive they'd been expecting, it was now circling the tower at a leisurely pace, its massive body casting a shadow that darkened several city blocks.
And then it spoke.
The voice that came from the dragon was unlike anything the Avengers had ever heard. It was mechanical and organic at the same time, layered with harmonics that seemed to resonate in dimensions that shouldn't exist. It was the voice of something ancient and something futuristic, something that existed in the spaces between moments.
It was also, if they'd known Marcus better, clearly enjoying itself way too much.
"AVENGERS."
The word echoed across the sky, audible through the tower's walls without any visible source of sound.
"I HAVE COME TO SPEAK WITH YOU. WILL YOU RECEIVE ME, OR SHALL I CONTINUE CIRCLING YOUR TOWER INDEFINITELY? I AM IMMORTAL. I HAVE NOTHING BUT TIME."
Tony, halfway into his armor, paused.
"Did the giant mechanical dragon just ask to parley?"
"I PREFER THE TERM 'DIALOGUE,' BUT YES."
"It can hear us," Natasha observed, her voice carefully neutral.
"I CAN HEAR MOST THINGS. IT IS PART OF BEING PARTIALLY OUTSIDE NORMAL SPACE-TIME. VERY CONVENIENT FOR EAVESDROPPING."
Steve stepped forward, addressing the air in a tone that suggested he dealt with giant talking dragons every day. "If you want to talk, you can come in. But we'll need some assurances that you're not here to attack us."
"CAPTAIN AMERICA. ALWAYS SO NOBLE. VERY WELL—I GIVE YOU MY WORD THAT I MEAN NO HARM TO YOU OR YOUR TEAM. I AM HERE ONLY TO DELIVER A MESSAGE. ALSO, I WANTED TO SEE THE LOOK ON STARK'S FACE WHEN HE SAW ME. IT IS EXACTLY AS ENTERTAINING AS I HOPED."
Tony's eye twitched.
"I WILL LAND ON YOUR ROOF. PLEASE DO NOT SHOOT AT ME. IT WILL NOT HURT ME, BUT IT WILL BE ANNOYING, AND I WILL COMPLAIN ABOUT IT EXTENSIVELY."
The dragon banked smoothly and descended toward the tower's rooftop landing pad, its massive body folding in on itself as it settled onto the structure. The whole building shook slightly with its weight—not dangerously, but enough to make everyone aware of just how much mass was now resting above their heads.
"JARVIS, structural integrity?"
"The tower is holding, sir. The creature's weight is substantial but within tolerances."
"Of course it is. Because the immortal dragon from a children's card game is considerate of building codes." Tony finished suiting up and headed for the roof, the rest of the team falling in behind him.
They emerged onto the rooftop to find Cyber Eternity Dragon coiled in a spiral that somehow fit perfectly on the landing pad, its glowing eyes tracking their approach with obvious intelligence. Up close, the creature was even more impressive—every plate of armor, every pulsing energy vein, every mechanical joint was a masterwork of engineering that made Tony's suit look like a child's toy.
He tried very hard not to feel personally attacked by this.
He failed.
"AH, THE FULL TEAM," the dragon said, its voice less overwhelming now but still carrying that strange harmonic resonance. "IRON MAN. CAPTAIN AMERICA. BLACK WIDOW. HAWKEYE. HULK—WELL, BANNER CURRENTLY. AND THOR, WHO I NOTE IS CURRENTLY OFF-WORLD BUT WILL PROBABLY BE VERY DISAPPOINTED HE MISSED THIS."
"You know our names," Steve observed.
"I KNOW MANY THINGS. IT IS PART OF MY... LET US CALL IT A GIFT." The dragon's head lowered, bringing its massive glowing eyes to roughly human level. "I AM CALLED MANY THINGS, BUT YOU MAY REFER TO ME AS THE DUEL MONSTER MENACE. I BELIEVE THAT IS THE NAME THE MEDIA HAS ASSIGNED ME."
"You're the one behind all the monster sightings," Natasha said. It wasn't a question.
"CORRECT. ALL OF THEM. EVERY MONSTER YOU HAVE DOCUMENTED—THE WARRIOR IN GOLDEN ARMOR, THE SMALL BROWN PUFFBALL, THE TERRIFYING EYE-CREATURE, THE LITERAL POT WITH A FACE—ALL ME. DIFFERENT FORMS, ONE BEING."
"That's... that's impossible," Bruce said, his scientific mind clearly struggling with the concept. "The energy signatures are completely different. The physical structures have nothing in common. You'd have to be completely restructuring your body at a molecular level with each transformation."
"YES."
"That's not possible!"
"AND YET." The dragon made a sound that was probably meant to be a chuckle. "DR. BANNER, YOU TURN INTO A GIANT GREEN RAGE MONSTER WHEN YOU GET ANGRY. YOU TRAVEL WITH A NORSE GOD WHO CONTROLS LIGHTNING AND A MAN WHO WAS FROZEN FOR SEVENTY YEARS AND CAME OUT FINE. 'IMPOSSIBLE' IS A RELATIVE TERM IN YOUR LINE OF WORK."
Bruce opened his mouth to argue, then closed it.
"Fair point," he admitted.
Tony stepped forward, his helmet retracting to show his face. He was staring at the dragon with an intensity that bordered on covetous.
"How do you work?" he demanded. "Your body—the engineering—it's beyond anything I've ever seen. The energy distribution alone should be impossible. How are you processing information? How are you maintaining structural integrity? How—"
"STARK. I APPRECIATE YOUR ENTHUSIASM, BUT I AM NOT HERE TO DISCUSS MY ANATOMY." The dragon's eyes glittered with amusement. "ALTHOUGH I AM FLATTERED BY YOUR INTEREST. PERHAPS ANOTHER TIME."
"Then why ARE you here?" Steve asked, cutting off Tony's spluttering.
The dragon was silent for a long moment, its mechanical body humming with energy that made the air feel charged.
"I AM HERE," it said finally, "TO DELIVER A PROPHECY."
The Avengers exchanged glances.
"A prophecy," Clint repeated skeptically. "You're a giant robot dragon and you're here to tell us the future?"
"THAT IS CORRECT, HAWKEYE. THOUGH 'ROBOT' IS AN OVERSIMPLIFICATION. I AM A FUSION OF TECHNOLOGY AND SPIRIT, METAL AND SOUL. I EXIST PARTIALLY OUTSIDE YOUR NORMAL EXPERIENCE OF TIME, WHICH GIVES ME... PERSPECTIVE."
"And this perspective tells you the future?"
"IT TELLS ME POSSIBILITIES. PATHS. THE SHAPE OF THINGS THAT MAY COME TO PASS IF THE RIGHT CONDITIONS ARE MET." The dragon lifted its head, looking toward the sky. "AND THERE IS SOMETHING COMING. SOMETHING THAT THREATENS NOT JUST THIS WORLD, BUT ALL WORLDS. ALL LIFE. EVERYWHERE."
The temperature on the rooftop seemed to drop.
"What kind of threat?" Steve asked, his voice steady but his eyes sharp.
"HIS NAME," the dragon said, each word carrying weight like a physical force, "IS THANOS."
Natasha's expression flickered. "We've heard that name. In reports from SHIELD, from Thor's debriefings. The alien warlord."
"WARLORD IS AN UNDERSTATEMENT. THANOS IS A TITAN—ONE OF THE LAST OF HIS KIND. HE HAS CONQUERED WORLDS WITHOUT NUMBER. SLAUGHTERED POPULATIONS BEYOND COUNTING. AND HE IS COMING HERE."
"Coming here," Tony repeated. "To Earth specifically?"
"TO THE UNIVERSE SPECIFICALLY, BUT YES, EARTH WILL BE A PRIMARY TARGET. BECAUSE EARTH, IN ITS IGNORANCE, POSSESSES SOMETHING THANOS WANTS VERY BADLY."
"What?"
The dragon's eyes pulsed brighter.
"INFINITY STONES."
The name hung in the air like a death sentence.
"The Tesseract," Bruce said slowly. "The thing that powered the portal in New York. That's an Infinity Stone?"
"THE SPACE STONE, YES. ONE OF SIX. EACH ONE CONTROLS A FUNDAMENTAL ASPECT OF EXISTENCE—SPACE, TIME, REALITY, POWER, MIND, SOUL. SEPARATELY, THEY ARE AMONG THE MOST POWERFUL OBJECTS IN THE UNIVERSE. TOGETHER..."
The dragon trailed off.
"Together what?" Steve pressed.
"TOGETHER, THEY WOULD GIVE THEIR WIELDER THE POWER TO RESHAPE REALITY ITSELF. TO DESTROY HALF OF ALL LIFE IN THE UNIVERSE WITH A SINGLE THOUGHT."
Silence.
Complete, absolute silence.
Then Tony laughed—a high, stressed sound that had nothing to do with humor.
"Okay," he said. "Okay. So there's an alien warlord coming to collect magic rocks that can destroy half the universe. And you're telling us this why? What are we supposed to do about it?"
The dragon lowered its head again, meeting Tony's eyes directly.
"PREPARE," it said simply. "WARN OTHERS. GATHER ALLIES. FIND THE STONES BEFORE HE DOES. AND WHEN THE TIME COMES—WHEN THANOS ARRIVES AT YOUR DOORSTEP—FIGHT. WITH EVERYTHING YOU HAVE. EVERYTHING YOU ARE."
"That's not a plan. That's a motivational poster."
"I NEVER CLAIMED TO HAVE A PLAN, STARK. I CLAIMED TO HAVE A PROPHECY." The dragon's voice softened slightly, losing some of its cosmic resonance. "THE FUTURE IS NOT FIXED. MY KNOWLEDGE IS OF POSSIBILITIES, NOT CERTAINTIES. BUT I CAN TELL YOU THIS: IF YOU DO NOTHING, IF YOU IGNORE THIS WARNING AND CONTINUE AS YOU ARE, THANOS WILL WIN. HALF OF ALL LIFE WILL DIE. INCLUDING PEOPLE YOU LOVE."
Tony's face went pale.
"BUT IF YOU ACT—IF YOU PREPARE—THERE IS A CHANCE. A REAL CHANCE. THE UNIVERSE IS NOT WITHOUT ITS DEFENDERS, STARK. YOU ARE NOT ALONE IN THIS FIGHT."
"And what about you?" Natasha asked, her voice carefully controlled. "If you know all this, if you have the power to turn into... whatever you want... why aren't YOU fighting?"
"WHO SAYS I WON'T BE?" The dragon's eyes glittered. "I HAVE MY OWN ROLE TO PLAY. BUT IT IS NOT YOUR ROLE. EACH OF US HAS OUR OWN PATH. MINE INVOLVES... A GREAT DEAL MORE CHAOS THAN YOURS."
"That's reassuring," Clint muttered.
"I TRY."
The dragon began to uncurl, its massive body shifting as it prepared to depart.
"I HAVE SAID WHAT I CAME TO SAY. THE REST IS UP TO YOU. BELIEVE ME OR DON'T. PREPARE OR DON'T. BUT REMEMBER THIS MOMENT, AVENGERS. REMEMBER THAT YOU WERE WARNED."
"Wait," Tony called out. "One more question."
The dragon paused.
"Why? Why tell us any of this? Why help us? What's in it for you?"
For a long moment, the dragon was silent.
Then it made that chuckling sound again.
"WOULD YOU BELIEVE ME IF I SAID IT'S BECAUSE I'M A FAN?"
"No."
"THEN BELIEVE THIS: THE UNIVERSE IS MORE FUN WHEN IT ISN'T DEAD. I HAVE A VESTED INTEREST IN KEEPING REALITY INTACT. ALSO, I GENUINELY LIKE SOME OF YOU. ESPECIALLY THE KURIBOH PLUSHIES. THOSE WERE A GOOD TOUCH."
And before anyone could respond, Cyber Eternity Dragon launched itself into the sky, its massive body somehow moving with impossible grace as it spiraled upward and vanished in a flash of blue-white light.
The Avengers stood on the rooftop in stunned silence.
"So," Clint said finally. "That happened."
"JARVIS," Tony said, his voice slightly strangled. "Please tell me you got all of that on record."
"Every word, sir. Every sensor reading. Every data point I could capture."
"Good. Good." Tony ran a hand through his hair. "Because I'm going to need to watch that about fifty times before I believe it actually happened."
"What do we do?" Bruce asked quietly. "About... about Thanos. About all of it."
Steve was silent for a long moment, staring at the sky where the dragon had disappeared.
"We do what it said," he answered finally. "We prepare. We warn others. We find out everything we can about these Infinity Stones." He turned to face his team. "And when the time comes, we fight."
"That's still a motivational poster," Tony pointed out.
"Then let's turn it into a plan." Steve started walking toward the door. "Team meeting in one hour. We've got work to do."
The Avengers filed back into the tower, each lost in their own thoughts.
None of them noticed the small Winged Kuriboh watching from a nearby rooftop, its tiny body shaking with silent laughter.
Hell's Kitchen
Three Hours Later
Marcus transformed back into his human form in his apartment, still grinning like an idiot.
"Oh my god," he wheezed. "Oh my GOD. The look on Tony's face. The LOOK. He was so jealous of my dragon body. He was SO jealous."
He collapsed onto his sleeping bag, staring at the water-stained ceiling.
"And the prophecy worked perfectly. They're going to start preparing for Thanos YEARS early. They might actually be ready when he shows up. I might have just saved trillions of lives with a dramatic entrance and some ominous monologuing."
He giggled.
"I am SO good at this."
But even as he celebrated, his mind was already moving to the next phase of his plan.
The Avengers were handled. They'd be paranoid and proactive now, investigating Infinity Stones and preparing for cosmic threats. That was good—that was GREAT.
But there was another problem that needed addressing.
HYDRA.
They were still embedded in SHIELD, still running their secret schemes, still preparing for Project Insight. And while Marcus had given Daredevil some hints about the situation, hints weren't going to be enough to stop an organization that had spent decades perfecting the art of hiding in plain sight.
HYDRA needed a more... direct approach.
They needed to be scared.
They needed to be REALLY scared.
And Marcus knew exactly how to do it.
HYDRA Facility
Location: Classified
That Night
The facility didn't officially exist.
It wasn't on any maps, any records, any databases that could be accessed through normal channels. It was buried three hundred feet below a nondescript office building in a nondescript business park, protected by layers of security that would make most intelligence agencies weep with envy.
This was where HYDRA conducted its most sensitive research. Where their top scientists worked on weapons that would never see the light of day until the time was right. Where Project Insight's targeting algorithms were refined and perfected.
Where approximately two hundred HYDRA operatives worked around the clock, confident in the knowledge that no one—NO ONE—knew they existed.
They were about to have a very bad night.
The first sign that something was wrong came at 11:47 PM, when every light in the facility simultaneously went out.
Emergency protocols activated immediately. Backup generators hummed to life. Red emergency lighting bathed the corridors in a hellish glow. Security teams began sweeping the facility, looking for any sign of intrusion.
They found nothing.
The second sign came at 11:52 PM, when the PA system crackled to life.
"Good evening, HYDRA."
The voice was deep and resonant, echoing through every speaker in the facility with perfect clarity. It was the voice of someone who had all the time in the world and intended to use every second of it.
"You don't know me yet. But you will. Oh, you WILL."
In the control room, technicians scrambled to trace the broadcast, to shut it down, to DO something. Their efforts accomplished nothing.
"My name is not important. What IS important is that I know who you are. I know WHAT you are. And I am very, very disappointed."
Down in the main research lab, Dr. List—one of HYDRA's top scientists—looked up from his work with a frown. He'd been with the organization for decades. He'd seen threats come and go. Whatever this was, it was probably just some hacker who'd gotten lucky.
Then the shadows in the corner of the room began to move.
"HYDRA," the voice continued over the PA system. "Cut off one head, two more shall take its place. That's your motto, isn't it? Very dramatic. Very intimidating. Very... STUPID."
The shadows coalesced.
A figure emerged from the darkness like it was stepping through a doorway. It was humanoid, but that was where the resemblance to anything normal ended. It stood nearly eight feet tall, clad in armor that seemed to drink in the light. A massive sword was strapped to its back—a blade that glowed with inner power, pulsing in rhythm like a heartbeat. Its face was obscured by a helmet, but the eyes that gleamed from behind the visor burned with a light that was definitely not human.
Dr. List fell backward out of his chair, scrambling away from the apparition.
"Wh-what are you?!" he gasped.
The figure tilted its head.
"I am Dark Paladin," it said, and its voice was the same one that had been coming from the PA system—deep, resonant, EVERYWHERE. "Master of Dark Magic. Fusion of warrior and spellcaster. And I am HERE."
It took a step forward, and the floor cracked beneath its feet.
"I am also," it added, in a tone that was somehow both terrifying and conversational, "extremely annoyed."
In the control room, security teams watched in horror as the figure on their monitors carved through the facility.
"Carved" was the right word. Not because there was blood—there wasn't—but because the intruder moved through their defenses like they weren't even there. Bullets bounced off its armor. Energy weapons splashed against a magical barrier that materialized from nowhere. One particularly brave agent tried to tackle it and was gently, almost delicately, thrown into a wall.
The figure didn't kill anyone.
It didn't need to.
It was making a point.
"Do you know what I hate about HYDRA?" the figure asked conversationally, walking down a corridor as security personnel fled before it. "It's the hypocrisy. You claim to want order. You claim to want to save humanity from itself. But what you really want is POWER. Control. The ability to decide who lives and who dies."
It reached a reinforced door—the kind designed to withstand explosions—and placed one armored hand against it.
The door dissolved.
Not melted. Not destroyed. DISSOLVED, like it had never existed in the first place.
"That's not order," the figure continued, stepping through the opening. "That's tyranny. And I have a real problem with tyranny."
On the other side of the door was HYDRA's command center—the heart of the facility, where all the most sensitive operations were coordinated. A dozen agents were inside, some reaching for weapons, some frozen in terror.
The figure stopped and looked around, taking in the computer terminals, the classified documents, the evidence of decades of careful planning.
"Hmm," it said. "Cozy. I especially like the giant HYDRA logo on the wall. Very subtle."
"Who ARE you?!" demanded the facility commander, a grizzled veteran who had seen combat on three continents and was currently trying very hard not to visibly tremble. "What do you WANT?"
"What do I want?" The figure seemed to consider the question. "I want a lot of things. World peace. Better pizza delivery options. A second season of Firefly. But from YOU specifically?"
It raised one hand, and the massive sword on its back flew into its grip, summoned by an invisible force.
"I want you to know that you've been noticed. I want you to know that your precious secrets aren't as secret as you think. And I want you to deliver a message to your masters—whoever and wherever they are."
The sword began to glow brighter, power building visibly within the blade.
"HYDRA cannot hide from me. HYDRA cannot run from me. And if HYDRA continues its current path—if Project Insight launches, if your helicarriers take to the sky, if you attempt your little global murder spree—I will dismantle your organization piece by piece. Every base. Every cell. Every agent. I will find them all, and I will END them."
The room was dead silent.
"I am giving you this ONE warning," the figure continued. "Abandon your plans. Disappear. Go live quiet lives somewhere far away from anything important. Because if I have to come back..."
It swung the sword in a casual arc.
The massive HYDRA logo on the wall—reinforced steel, bolted directly into concrete—was sliced cleanly in half. The two pieces crashed to the ground with a deafening clang.
"...I won't be this gentle."
The figure sheathed its sword.
"Oh, and one more thing," it added, almost as an afterthought. "Tell Alexander Pierce that I know. I know EVERYTHING. And I'm watching."
The lights went out again.
When they came back on, the figure was gone.
HYDRA Facility - Aftermath
Thirty Minutes Later
The facility was in chaos.
Every piece of equipment that could record data had been corrupted. Every computer terminal displayed the same message: "CUT OFF ONE HEAD, I'LL CUT OFF THE REST." Every physical document in the building had spontaneously caught fire and burned to ash—even documents in fireproof safes.
Forty-seven agents had been injured—bruises, minor fractures, one dislocated shoulder from the guy who'd tried the tackle. Nobody was dead, but the medical bay was overflowing.
And the figure—Dark Paladin, it had called itself—was nowhere to be found. Not on any camera, any sensor, any tracking system. It had appeared from nothing and vanished into nothing, like a ghost with a very large sword.
Dr. List sat in a corner of the control room, his hands shaking uncontrollably as he clutched a tablet showing the damage reports.
"How?" he kept muttering. "How did it know? How did it FIND us?"
Nobody had an answer.
Somewhere in Washington D.C.
Two Hours Later
Alexander Pierce was having a very unpleasant night.
The report from the facility had arrived twenty minutes ago. He'd read it three times, hoping each time that the words would somehow change, that it would turn out to be some kind of elaborate hoax.
It wasn't.
Someone—something—had walked into one of their most secure locations and dismantled it. Not destroyed, not seized, DISMANTLED. Every piece of intelligence, every research project, every plan they'd been developing for years—gone. Burned. Erased.
And it had known his name.
"Tell Alexander Pierce that I know. I know EVERYTHING."
Pierce's hands tightened on the tablet.
This was a problem. A very, very big problem.
HYDRA had spent decades building its infrastructure within SHIELD, within governments, within the very fabric of global power. They'd been patient. Careful. Invisible. And now, somehow, something had seen through all of it.
Something that could walk through walls. Something that could dissolve reinforced steel. Something that had casually threatened to destroy their entire organization if they continued their plans.
What WAS it? Where had it come from? How did it know about Project Insight?
Pierce's phone rang.
"Report," he said curtly.
"Sir, we've been analyzing the footage from the facility. The creature—it matches descriptions from incidents in New York. Multiple monster sightings, all attributed to something the media is calling the 'Duel Monster Menace.'"
Pierce's eye twitched.
"The card game monsters."
"Yes, sir. We believe this may be the same entity in a different form. Which would mean—"
"Which would mean we're dealing with something that can look like ANYTHING." Pierce's mind raced through the implications. "It could be anyone. It could be ANYWHERE. It could be watching us right now."
Silence on the other end of the line.
"Sir, what are your orders?"
Pierce was quiet for a long moment.
Project Insight was supposed to launch in eighteen months. Eighteen months of final preparations, final calibrations, final positioning. They'd been so close. SO close.
But now...
"Accelerate the timeline," he said finally. "I want Insight ready to launch in six months. Before this thing has a chance to interfere."
"Sir, that's—that's incredibly aggressive. We'd have to cut corners, skip testing phases—"
"Then cut corners. Skip testing phases. I don't care what it takes. We cannot let some magical creature derail decades of work."
"Understood, sir. I'll—"
The line went dead.
Pierce stared at his phone.
Every light in his office went out.
"Good evening, Alexander."
Pierce spun, reaching for the gun hidden in his desk drawer.
His hand closed on empty air.
The gun was floating in the center of the room, suspended in a bubble of purple light. And next to it, barely visible in the darkness, was the outline of something tall and armored and absolutely terrifying.
"Looking for this?" Dark Paladin asked, almost politely.
"How—how did you—"
"I told you I was watching." The figure stepped forward, and Pierce could see the burning eyes behind its visor. "Did you really think I'd make a threat and not follow through? Did you really think 'accelerating the timeline' was a smart response to my warning?"
Pierce's mind raced. There had to be a way out of this. There was ALWAYS a way out.
"What do you want?" he demanded, trying to project confidence he didn't feel. "Money? Power? We can make a deal—"
"I want you to STOP," Dark Paladin interrupted. "That's all. Just... stop. Abandon Insight. Disband your cells. Fade into obscurity like the bad memory you are."
"And if I don't?"
The figure was silent for a moment.
Then it raised one hand, and Pierce's gun floated toward him—slowly, gently, until it was hovering just in front of his face.
"If you don't," Dark Paladin said, "then I start taking pieces off the board. One at a time. Starting with you."
The gun turned, pointing directly at Pierce's forehead.
"I won't kill you tonight," the figure continued. "Because I believe in second chances. But this is your ONLY second chance, Alexander. Use it wisely."
The gun dropped to the floor.
The lights came back on.
The figure was gone.
Alexander Pierce sat in his chair, staring at nothing, his heart pounding so hard he could feel it in his teeth.
For the first time in forty years, he was genuinely, truly afraid.
Marcus's Apartment
4:47 AM
Marcus stumbled through his door and collapsed onto his sleeping bag, utterly exhausted.
Maintaining Dark Paladin form for that long had been DRAINING. The monster was incredibly powerful, but that power came with a cost—his human body needed time to recover after extended transformations. He felt like he'd run a marathon, climbed a mountain, and then done both again backwards.
But it had been worth it.
Oh, it had been SO worth it.
"The look on Pierce's face," Marcus mumbled into his pillow, too tired to even grin properly. "The absolute TERROR. He thought he was untouchable. He thought HYDRA was invincible. And then I showed up and dissolved his sense of security along with all his documents."
He'd tracked Pierce's location using Thousand-Eyes Restrict earlier in the week—the monster's "see everything" ability was incredibly useful for surveillance. When he'd heard Pierce order the accelerated timeline, he'd known he needed to make a personal visit.
Threatening HYDRA through intermediaries was one thing. Looking their leader in the eye and promising destruction was something else entirely.
"They're scared now," Marcus murmured, his eyes already closing. "Really, genuinely scared. And scared people make mistakes. They'll rush. They'll cut corners. And when they do..."
He'd be there.
He'd be watching.
And he'd be ready.
SHIELD Headquarters
The Next Morning
Nick Fury stared at the reports on his desk with an expression that would have sent lesser agents running for cover.
Two incidents in twenty-four hours.
First, a giant mechanical dragon had appeared at Avengers Tower, delivered a prophecy about an alien warlord named Thanos, and vanished into thin air. The Avengers were currently in full research mode, pulling every file they could find on Infinity Stones and cosmic threats.
Second—and this was the one that really had Fury's attention—someone or something had attacked a facility that didn't officially exist. A facility that even Fury hadn't known about until the incident report mysteriously appeared on his desk this morning.
The report described Dark Paladin. It described the destruction of the facility's intelligence. And it described the figure's knowledge of something called "Project Insight."
Fury had never heard of Project Insight.
Which meant either the report was fabricated, or there were operations within SHIELD that were being hidden from HIM.
Given recent events, he was inclined toward the second option.
"Well, well, well," Fury murmured, leaning back in his chair. "Seems like our mysterious card game friend is even more useful than I thought."
He picked up his phone.
"Hill. Get me everything you can find on a project called 'Insight.' Quietly. Don't use official channels."
"Sir?"
"Someone's been keeping secrets from me, Hill. And I want to know what they are."
He ended the call and looked at the report again.
The Duel Monster Menace, as the media called it, had just given him a gift. Unintentionally, probably—the creature seemed more interested in chaos than cooperation. But a gift nonetheless.
Someone had built a secret facility under his nose. Someone was running operations he didn't know about. Someone had gotten so comfortable in their hidden power that they'd never expected a magical warrior from a trading card game to kick in their door.
Fury allowed himself a small, cold smile.
Time to find out who.
Marcus's Apartment
Later That Day
Marcus woke up feeling like death warmed over, microwaved, and then left out on the counter for a week.
"Worth it," he croaked, stumbling toward the bathroom. "Totally worth it."
He'd pushed himself hard—two major transformations in one day, both of them high-power monsters that required significant energy to maintain. His body was paying the price now, but his mind was already racing with plans.
The Avengers were preparing for Thanos. That was good.
HYDRA was scared and potentially making mistakes. That was better.
Nick Fury had probably received a copy of the HYDRA facility report by now and was starting to ask uncomfortable questions. That was EXCELLENT.
"I'm actually changing things," Marcus realized, staring at his reflection in the cracked bathroom mirror. "Like, really changing things. The timeline is already different. The Avengers know about Infinity Stones years early. HYDRA knows they're not invisible anymore. Fury's suspicious of his own organization."
He splashed water on his face.
"This is either going to save the universe or break it completely. No pressure."
His stomach growled loudly.
"But first," he amended, "breakfast. Can't save or break the universe on an empty stomach."
He transformed briefly into Kuriboh—which barely took any energy and actually made him feel better, thanks to the monster's naturally positive nature—and floated over to his tiny kitchen to see what food he had available.
The answer was: not much.
"I need to do some more vigilante stuff," Marcus muttered, transforming back. "The reward money's running low. Maybe I'll stop a few muggers today. Keep my skills sharp. Show the city that the Duel Monster Menace is still around and still judging criminals."
He paused, considering.
"Actually, you know what? I should do something different today. Something fun. Something that'll keep everyone guessing."
He thought about which monster to use.
And then he remembered one that he'd been saving for a special occasion.
"Oh," Marcus breathed, a grin spreading across his face. "Oh, this is going to be GREAT."
Central Park
2:00 PM
It was a beautiful afternoon in New York City. The sun was shining, the birds were singing, and approximately three hundred people were enjoying a peaceful day in Central Park.
Then the ground started shaking.
People looked around in confusion, some starting to run toward the park exits on pure instinct. New Yorkers had learned to trust their instincts when it came to random supernatural events.
But the shaking stopped almost as soon as it started.
And then, in the exact center of the Great Lawn, a massive figure materialized.
It was a dragon. But not like any dragon anyone had seen before—not the dark one, not the white one, not the mechanical one. This dragon was made of pure golden light, radiating warmth and power in equal measure. Its wings spread wide enough to cast shadows across half the lawn. Its eyes burned with ancient wisdom.
It was, unmistakably, a creature of immense and terrible majesty.
And it was... humming?
Yes, the golden dragon was definitely humming. A cheerful little tune that sounded remarkably like the theme song from a popular children's cartoon.
People stared.
The dragon stopped humming and looked around at its audience with an expression of benevolent interest.
"GOOD AFTERNOON, NEW YORK!" it boomed, its voice carrying across the entire park without any apparent effort. "LOVELY DAY, ISN'T IT? JUST WANTED TO STOP BY AND SAY HELLO!"
Nobody moved.
"I KNOW I USUALLY SHOW UP FOR CRIME-FIGHTING PURPOSES, BUT I THOUGHT—WHY NOT TAKE A DAY OFF? SPREAD SOME CHEER? MAYBE DO SOME COMMUNITY OUTREACH?"
Still nothing.
"I'VE BEEN THINKING ABOUT MY PUBLIC IMAGE LATELY. ALL THE DRAMATIC APPEARANCES, THE OMINOUS WARNINGS, THE THREATENING OF CRIMINALS... IT'S A BIT ONE-DIMENSIONAL, DON'T YOU THINK? I WANT PEOPLE TO KNOW THAT I'M NOT JUST ABOUT JUDGMENT AND TERROR. I'M ALSO ABOUT FUN!"
Someone in the crowd—a child, maybe seven years old—started laughing.
The dragon's attention zeroed in on the kid with disconcerting speed.
"AH! A YOUNG HUMAN! EXCELLENT!" The dragon lowered its massive head until it was almost at ground level, its glowing eyes twinkling. "WHAT IS YOUR NAME, SMALL ONE?"
The child, seemingly unafraid of the giant golden dragon, stepped forward. "I'm Emma!"
"EMMA! WHAT A WONDERFUL NAME! TELL ME, EMMA—WHAT IS YOUR FAVORITE MONSTER?"
"I like puppies!"
"PUPPIES ARE EXCELLENT CREATURES! I APPROVE!" The dragon nodded sagely. "IF I COULD TURN INTO A PUPPY, I WOULD DEMONSTRATE FOR YOU, BUT UNFORTUNATELY MY ABILITIES ARE LIMITED TO SPECIFIC CATEGORIES. HOWEVER—"
The dragon glowed brightly for a moment, and when the glow faded, it had been replaced by a small, fluffy, incredibly adorable Kuriboh.
"—I CAN DO THIS! IS THIS ACCEPTABLE?"
Emma squealed with delight and rushed forward to hug the Kuriboh, which chirped happily and nuzzled against her.
The tension in the crowd broke. People started laughing, pulling out phones, recording the scene. A giant golden dragon had appeared in Central Park and immediately transformed into a fuzzy ball of cuteness to make a child happy.
This was the most New York thing that had ever happened.
Marcus, safely hidden within his Kuriboh form, was having the time of his life.
"Kuri kuri!" he chirped, which roughly translated to "This is the best day ever!"
He spent the next hour floating around the park, greeting children, posing for photos (as various cute monsters), and generally being the least threatening supernatural entity New York had ever encountered.
At one point, a news crew showed up.
"Can you tell us who you are?" the reporter asked, holding a microphone up to a Marshmallon that was currently balancing on a little girl's head.
"We are the Duel Monster Menace," the Marshmallon replied in its cute, squeaky voice. "We are also available for birthday parties. Terms and conditions may apply."
The reporter blinked. "Birthday parties?"
"That was a joke. We don't actually do birthday parties. Our schedule is very unpredictable."
"What about the incidents at Avengers Tower and the... the classified facility?"
The Marshmallon was quiet for a moment.
"Sometimes we have serious work to do," it said, its voice losing some of its squeaky cuteness. "Sometimes there are threats that need addressing. But today? Today is a good day. Today we just wanted to make some kids smile."
"Are you... are you a hero?"
"We are whatever we need to be. Hero, monster, chaos agent, community outreach program." The Marshmallon bounced slightly. "Labels are limiting. We prefer 'enthusiastic participant in existence.'"
The reporter clearly had no idea how to respond to that.
"Thank you for... for being here?" she managed.
"You're welcome! Have a nice day!"
And with that, the Marshmallon transformed into a Blue-Eyes White Dragon and launched into the sky, leaving behind a park full of confused but delighted New Yorkers.
Avengers Tower
Later That Evening
"Okay," Tony said, staring at the footage from Central Park. "I give up."
"Give up what?" Steve asked.
"Trying to understand what the hell is going on with this... this THING." Tony gestured at the screen, where a golden dragon was currently transforming into a Kuriboh to hug a small child. "Yesterday it warned us about a universe-ending threat. Last night it apparently attacked a secret HYDRA base and scared their leadership into panic. Today it showed up in Central Park and spent an hour playing with children!"
"The base was HYDRA?" Steve straightened up, his expression sharpening.
"According to Fury. He called an hour ago. Apparently our mysterious friend did some impromptu internal investigation for SHIELD and uncovered some very concerning operations." Tony pulled up additional files. "Project Insight. Three helicarriers designed to eliminate 'threats' before they can act. Except HYDRA's definition of 'threat' apparently includes anyone who might oppose their eventual takeover."
"My God," Steve breathed.
"Yeah. So while the Avengers are dealing with cosmic prophecies, the card game monster is apparently taking down Nazi sleeper cells in its spare time." Tony shook his head. "And ALSO finding time to do community outreach in Central Park."
"Maybe it's not one person," Natasha suggested. "Maybe it's multiple entities who share information and coordinate."
"The energy signatures all match, Nat. It's one being with a lot of different faces."
"Then maybe..." Bruce trailed off, thinking. "Maybe the different monsters represent different aspects of its personality? Like, the big scary ones come out for serious threats, but there's also a side that just wants to play with kids?"
"That's disturbingly psychologically complex for an entity from a trading card game."
"Nothing about this is normal, Tony. We might as well embrace the weird."
Tony sighed heavily, leaning back in his chair.
"Fine. You know what? Fine. We've got an omnidimensional card game entity that fights HYDRA, warns us about cosmic threats, and does children's entertainment in its spare time. This is our lives now. I'm going to need more coffee."
He paused.
"And maybe a drink."
"It's barely six PM, Tony."
"It's been a VERY long couple of days, Cap."
Marcus's Apartment
That Night
Marcus sat on his rooftop, legs dangling over the edge, looking out at the New York skyline.
It had been a good day. A really, really good day.
He'd terrorized HYDRA. He'd warned the Avengers. He'd made a bunch of kids happy. He'd kept everyone guessing about who and what he was.
And somewhere out there, the gears of the universe were slowly starting to turn in a new direction.
The Avengers would prepare for Thanos. They might actually be ready this time.
HYDRA was on the defensive. They might make mistakes that would let Fury take them down earlier.
The world was changing. He was changing it.
"Not bad for a guy who just wanted to cause chaos," Marcus murmured to himself.
He thought about what came next. There were still threats to address—Ultron would eventually happen if they didn't prevent it, the Sokovia Accords would cause problems, the Guardians of the Galaxy were out there doing their thing. He couldn't fix everything, but he could nudge things in better directions.
And he could have a lot of fun doing it.
"Tomorrow," he decided, "I'm going to introduce myself to Spider-Man. If he's around yet. If not... maybe I'll go mess with Doctor Doom. I've always wanted to see how he'd react to a monster invasion of Latveria."
He grinned.
"Or maybe both. Why choose?"
Somewhere in the city, a siren wailed.
Marcus stood up, stretching.
"Time to go to work."
He transformed into Dark Magician—classic, powerful, appropriately dramatic—and leaped into the night, cape billowing behind him.
The Duel Monster Menace was just getting started.