Clarice Ferguson, aka Blink, doesn’t remember who she is, nothing about the war torn world from which she comes from, the Age of Apocalypse, or how she ended up here or wherever here is. At the moment she looks down at the barrel of a gun; and instinctively remembers what to do when faced with that. She fights, acting on pure instinct as her body remembers her mentor Victor Creed’s teachings, and beats her attacker to the floor, taking his gun with a consummate ease. Her attacker is impressed with her skills so far, however he fights Blink back, saying that she had a chance to kill him, but she didn’t, and that he might regret of having to dispose an as good assassin as she is. Blink elbows him in the mouth; kicks him in the groin and hold his gun at his neck. She explains that she did not start this conflict, and that she is not trying to kill him, because if she wanted to he’d already be dead by now.
The man is angry, and wanting to finish this fight off immediately, he violently flings Blink off him. She flees, hiding amongst the floating rocks in the weird environs of the Negative Zone, to prepare herself for the next stage of the battle. Then her attacker jumps at her, knives in both hands; but things go differently, and they end up in a struggle, with one of the knives pressed at Blink’s throat, and the other at the man’s throat. Blink tells him they should stop trying to kill each other, and orders him to tell her where they are and why they can breathe on these floating rocks in space. The man thinks she is strange. She thinks he’s stranger. The man offers a truce, and Blink agrees; and suddenly he has her in a huge bear hug, congratulating her on being such a formidable warrior, and glad that she offers him no harm. She says no harm as long as he puts her down.
Then suddenly there is a lava quake - hot molten rock explodes up from the rock they are standing on, and he pulls Blink with him as they jump over the rock’s edge. Blink thinks they are about to fall to their doom; but the man calls the name Marcul, and a winged animal looking like a cross between a horse and a cat, swoops in. They land on it’s back, and the man explains that Marcul is a ferecat, one which he has tamed. He’s surprised that she hasn’t heard of them before.
Later, as the pair ride into the calmer provinces of the Negative Zone, which has light blue rocks floating around a darker blue space, Blink has been telling Ahmyor of her amnesia; that she knows her name, but nothing much else, except for brief flashes of memory. They reach a set of stairs floating in space. Blink thinks she’s seeing things, but is assured there really is stairs floating in front of her. Ahmyor explains that he sees phantoms too; that he is tortured by visions of their former leader, the mad and corrupt Annihilus. But Annihilus was toppled by four blue clad superheroes (the Fantastic Four). Blink doesn’t see what’s so bad about this, but Ahmyor goes on to tell her that they inherited something much worse after Annihilus’s rule was ended.
Blink asks what could be worse when Marcul goes wild, sensing danger with her powerful sonar and smell senses. Thus the duo come upon a small island, and Ahmyor uses some enhancements on his goggles to see that the lowlanders are under attack! Blink asks who they are; Ahmyor explains they are just simple people with little fight in them. When they arrive they find the people under attack by Blastaar’s men. Blink smells burnt flesh; blood; and feels that it is very, disturbingly familiar. Ahmyor jumps off the ferecat to fight, leaving Blink unable to handle Marcul on her own. She senses that Ahmyor is noble, and that these “hairy things” are about to carve up an old woman, so she charges Marcul along, plowing down one of Blastaar’s warriors.
Blink jumps off Marcul and joins the fight; but is beset by a vision of a feral warrior with a hand missing, and another hand armed with claws (Weapon X). For a moment she remembers herself, but her guard is down, and a warrior is about to slice her head off when Ahmyor blasts him with a weird energy weapon, showering Blink with pink goo. He tells her to be mindful, but she has spotted two of Blastaar’s men sneaking up behind Ahmyor, so she summersaults in the air, lands behind them, and blinks the soldiers away. Again she acted on pure instinct and is not sure how she did it, but Ahmyor is glad anyway. Blink is not sure what it all means, and finds the people they saved are kneeling down to them. An old man thanks Annihilus for sending them to protect them all from Blastaar. Blink wonders who Blastaar is, and Ahmyor explains that he is the new leader of this place, more evil than Annihilus ever was, the “something much worse” he was about to tell her about earlier.
Ahmyor tells her “Blastaar is a pretender to the throne. He is driven not to rule, but to destroy. He wishes to lead Annihilus’s people into war with the people of Earth.” That name, “Earth”, strikes a chord within Blink, as Ahmyor screams to the people that they will rise up and fight against Blastaar and return the Negative zone to its rightful master, Annihilus! Blink doesn’t know why, but she knows that she is somehow familiar with the concept of fighting for freedom from an oppressive ruler.
