On a world where New York had been transformed into something akin to a game of Dungeons and Dragons, the Exiles found themselves victim of the same spell that transformed the city. Each member of the group thought they were simple mercenaries until that world’s Spider-Man and Magik helped break the spell upon them. Spider-Man explained how the sorcerer Kulan Gath had cast a spell to transform the city, and brought other magical players to his side by drawing out their dark side. Unfortunately for Gath, he made the mistake of trying to recruit Ghost Rider, which only resulted in the demon Zarathos being unleashed, who stole his throne.
The Exiles mission was actually to put Kulan Gath back on the throne, which forced the Exiles to work alongside the evil sorcerer to infiltrate Zarathos’ palace and steal back Bath’s amulet. Unsurprisingly, Gath betrayed the Exiles as soon as he was back in possession of his amulet. Meanwhile, Heather had been feeling unwell the entire time on this world, and her instinct told her not to transform into Sasquatch. Kulan Gath’s spell revealed the truth of Heather’s powers; she was not in fact mutated by gamma radiation, but had made a deal with the Great Beast Tanaraq to survive a lab accident.
Tanaraq erased Heather’s memories of this, until Kulan Gath’s spell drew out the dark side within her. Heather was forced to transform in order to save Beak from Zarathos’ henchman Morbius, 
which unleashed the Great Beast. Tanaraq easily defeated Kulan Gath before he could kill Blink and, knowing the mission was to put him back on this throne, hurled him through his throne, which killed him. The Great Beast assured the Exiles that Heather was gone and that he would be taking her place on the team, and he would naturally assume command. [Exiles (1st series) #54-57]
It didn’t take long for the savage Great Beast to make waves amongst the Exiles. On a simple mission to stop a fuel cell factory igniting the atmosphere, which could have been ended with a conversation, Tanaraq chose to savagely murder everyone present. Irate at having to work under the Timebroker’s rule, Tanaraq set out a plan to free himself. With time to spare after the mission he set the factory to explode unless the Exiles helped gather the smartest criminals in the world to study the Tallus. While the rest of the Exiles completed this task, Beak sought the aid of Alpha Flight’s Shaman. Shaman helped extract Heather from the Great Beast, thought it was Morph posing as her late husband Wolverine that helped her find the strength to finally free herself. Tanaraq was then seized by his counterpart from that reality, who was outraged at the Great Beast’s presence on his world. [Exiles (1st series) #58]
The team’s joy at being reunited with Heather was short lived as, when they arrived on the next world, she was not with the team. They had little time to address this however, as they found themselves face to face with Sabretooth. He and Blink revealed what had happened the last time blink had been on this world with Sabretooth, and the traumatic experience she had been through. To make matters worse for Blink, the mission assigned by the Tallus was “Kill Mimic.” Blink refused and tried to teleport the Tallus away, only for it to go to Sabretooth. He too refused to kill Mimic and the group were confronted by the Timebroker, who seemed uncharacteristically nasty. Blink insisted the team quit, though the Timebroker sent the team to the next world regardless. [Exiles (1st series) #59]
On the next world, Blink and Sabretooth, who had been brought along with the rest of the team, were surprised to find themselves back in their home reality. The Timebroker explained that this was their punishment for disobeying his orders. Their mission was to kill Blink and Creed’s old team, the X-Men, before they could stop Sinister seizing Apocalypse’s throne. Additionally, the team were now missing Beak. An excessively nasty Timebroker explained that Heather and Beak had been excised from the roster for being “useless.” Meanwhile, Mimic had concerns after observing Blink defer to Sabretooth’s judgement on several occasions, as if she had never been leader.
In addition to Sabretooth, the newest member of the Exiles was an old enemy of Creed and Blink’s; Holocaust. The son of Apocalypse was not impressed at being ordered about and flew away to kill Sinister. Instead, Holocaust sensed the M’Kraan Crystal, which was being studied in a government facility, and realized it had the same energy signature as the Tallus. He returned to the Exiles and convinced them to put their differences aside in order to use what he’d learned to find the Timebroker. While collecting what they needed to complete this task, the group clashed 
with Magneto and his X-Men, who thought Sabretooth and Blink were now working for Holocaust. Whilst the Timebroker demanded Holocaust kill Magneto, Namora convinced him not to bow to the little butler’s wishes, which surprisingly worked. Together the group were able to isolate the Timebroker’s signal within the Tallus and teleported inside the M’Kraan, and into the mysterious home of the Timebroker. [Exiles (1st series) #60-61]
The Exiles found themselves in a strange, crystal palace with multiple realities on display, as well as rooms containing an entire dessert and an ocean. More concerning, however, was each of the deceased members of the Exiles and Weapon X, as well as Beak and Heather, were on display encased within a crystal wall. They soon discovered the apparent masterminds behind their plight, 
a group of intelligent insects who worked the systems of this crystal palace. However, the group quickly learned the aliens were pacifistic and the crystal palace had been taken over by none other than Hyperion.
The former Weapon Xer explained the origin of the Exiles. The insects, dubbed the Timebreakers, had discovered the crystal palace, or Panoptichron, and damaged the multiverse while exploring it. Being pacifists, they recruited the Exiles and Weapon X to do the heavy lifting for them, and created the Timebroker simulacrum to communicate through. Both teams were fed a lie that they had become unhinged from time, when in fact the Timebrokers had used probability to determine the best recruits. Whenever a member of these teams would fall, the Timebreakers would gather the remains and place them in the wall of the crystal palace. Unfortunately for them, Hyperion regenerated from his scattered remains, burst free and took control of the Panoptichron. His first task was to destroy two universes, just to see it happened. Then, from roughly around the time the Exiles fought Ego, Hyperion started pulling their strings in a quest for vengeance. He sent them to dangerous worlds and put wild cards like Sabretooth and Holocaust on the team. Unfortunately for Hyperion, he couldn’t leave the crystal palace himself or lose control.
While Blink, Morph and Mimic remembered how powerful Hyperion was, the others had no idea. Holocaust unleashed his fury on the titan but was taken down and easily killed when Hyperion absorbed his energy form. The rest of the team fled, resulting in a cat and mouse game throughout the Panoptichron. Despite their best efforts, Hyperion wiped the floor with the Exiles, badly burning Morph, forcing Mimic to maim himself with a cannonball tackle and killing Namora with his heat vision.
Meanwhile, the Timebreakers freed Beak, who told him the Panoptichron calculated he had the highest probability of saving him. Beak realized that, in the fight against Tanaraq, he recruited help and used the same principle here. With the Crystal Palace’s technology, he recruited two “good” Hyperions to help take down the evil version. These Hyperions helped turn the table but ultimately it was Blink’s fast thinking that stopped their enemy by teleporting half a ton of sand inside his body. While Creed and Blink wanted to kill the titan for what he did, Mimic stuck to his vow to never kill again and convinced them to spare him. Instead, they teleported Hyperion back to his own desolate world, which had been destroyed by the humans he had conquered.
The other Hyperions were reluctant to leave the Exiles in charge, but Beak had earned their trust and the boy vouched for them. They happily left, provided Beak stayed with the team. Beak, however, intended to go home as soon as things were repaired. [Exiles (1st series) #62-65]
With Hyperion gone, the Exiles were now in charge of the Panoptichron and had to pick up the pieces. Pieces which included a lot of damaged equipment and a badly injured Mimic and Morph. Heather was released from the crystal wall, caught up on the situation and she recruited a non-magical Doctor Strange that was an expert in superhuman anatomy to assist with helping her friends. Doctor Strange helped Morph recuperate from his burns fairly easily, but Mimic was more of a challenge. Mimic was holding his shattered body in steel form but his healing abilities were insufficient to repair the damage fast enough. It was up to the Exiles to find a reality with a way to heal their teammate, while Mimic went into suspended animation in the crystal wall.
However, before they could depart on their mission to save Mimic, Morph insisted they bury Sunfire’s body on the Vi-Lock world. While they could have returned her to her home world, Morph knew she would be happier close to her true love Mary Jane.
Despite the damaged instrumentation in the Crystal Palace, Heather and the Timebreakers were able to locate a suitable world to help Mimic. Blink, Sabretooth and Morph travelled to a world plagued with giant monsters to retrieve a healing serum from Curt Connors. Due to the trio’s mutant nature, they inadvertently interfered with Connor’s mission by distracting Krakoa away from its true purpose, killing Fin Fang Foom. Blink, Sabretooth and Morph helped undo the damage they had cause to the timeline by tricking Foom into attacking Karakoa and being destroyed. A grateful Connors thanked the team with a vial of his healing serum.
Meanwhile, in the Crystal Palace, Doctor Strange realized the Weapon X member Deadpool was still alive and had a healing factor that could save Mimic. As he was unaware of Weapon X’s history, the doctor released the man, and was promptly murdered for his efforts. Deadpool then took Heather hostage and demanded she release any other surviving Weapon Xers. While 
Heather released the Weapon X member Hulk, Beak secretly released Mimic, who copied Deadpool’s healing factor and took Deadpool down. Uninterested in Deadpool’s power play, Hulk promptly killed Deadpool and asked she be sent home to own reality. Mimic was fully healed from his injuries, but with the downside of inheriting Deadpool’s horribly scarred skin. [Exiles (1st series) #66-68]
In-Between
- On Earth-616, the Scarlet Witch’s insanity and burgeoning reality warping abilities resulted in reality being rewritten into one where mutants were the dominant power, led by Magneto’s royal family known as the House of M. [House of M crossover]
Chronology (Continued)
Mimic attempted to drop Deadpool’s powers but was unable to do so, which he deduced was likely because the abilities were so strong they fought against being removed. He resolved to not use Connor’s healing serum just yet, in case the scarred skin reasserted itself. Together, the group agreed it was time to return Beak home to his girlfriend and kids. Unfortunately, something was wrong with the equipment and they couldn’t his see the world until they arrived there. They discovered the 616 reality had been altered and mutants were now the majority, ruled over by Magneto’s House of M.
In this new reality, Beak’s girlfriend Angel didn’t remember him, and their kids had been erased from reality, which left him distraught. Angel was a successful model in this altered reality, which brought her to the attention of Proteus, something that would prove extremely fateful for the Exiles. Resurrected by the reality warp, Proteus survived by burning his way through various bodies like a parasite. The body snatcher kidnapped Beak and learned about the Exiles and the multiverse.
When the Exiles attempted to save their teammate, Proteus wiped the floor with the team, using his reality warping powers. The psychopath played off the team’s fears, tormenting each of them 
while he absorbed knowledge of the multiverse directly through the Tallus. His only weakness was metal, which put Mimic in a prime position to take the monster down, using his Colossus abilities. Unfortunately for Mimic, his vow to never kill caused him to hesitate long enough for Proteus to possess him. With a powerful new form at his disposal and a multiverse to explore, Proteus used his reality warping abilities to teleport to another reality, leaving a devastated Blink behind.
There was little time for Blink to grieve though, as she used the regenerative serum from Dr. Connors to save Angel’s life. Seconds later, she and the Exiles were whisked away before a mysterious wave of light could envelope the world. Beak, however, was left behind, as the Timebreakers had “re-hinged” him with his reality and could not extract him. [Exiles (1st series) #69-71]
In-Between
- The Scarlet Witch undid the House of M reality warp in a wave of light. However, she made one massive change; ninety-nine percent of the mutants on Earth-616 were depowered, their X-genes completely removed, including Beak and Angel. [House of M crossover]
Chronology (Continued)
Beak, along with Angel and most of their kids, were depowered, rendering them human. Beak, however was just happy to be reunited with his family at long last. Meanwhile, the Exiles tracked Proteus to a New Universe, one with none of the “usual” superhumans they were used to. Instead, this world had a few thousand “paranormals,” humans recently imbued with powers a year before under mysterious circumstances. Proteus tracked a man named Ken Connell, who wielded the Starbrand, a source of unlimited power. Heather was able to deduce the monster’s target and sent the team to intercept Connell before Proteus could.
At the same time, Proteus ran afoul of another one of this world’s paranormals, a man named Justice. Justice was able to wear down Mimic’s failing body with his energy blasts, but Proteus merely discarded Calvin’s form and possessed Justice instead. A devastated Blink discovered Mimic’s desiccated corpse while tracking the psychopath, which strengthened her resolve to stop Proteus. After an understandable scuffle with the mistrustful Connell, the Exiles executed a plan, orchestrated by Heather. The group recruited the aid of two paranormals, Lenore Fenzl and Keith Remsen, to attack Proteus within his dreams. Fenzl used her abilities to knock Proteus unconscious and Remsen infiltrated his dreams to shut him down psychically. The plan almost worked, but their target was too powerful and he managed to break free.
Fortunately, Heather had a second plan and unleashed her secret weapon. In a surprising move, Heather made a deal with Mojo. He would get unrestricted access to monitor the multiverse in exchange for providing the Exiles Longshot. Heather correctly deduced that Longshot’s probability 
altering powers would interfere with Proteus’ reality warping, and he was able to drive the monster away to another reality by piercing his flesh with razor blades, saving his new teammates. Unfortunately for the Exiles, Longshot didn’t remember any of them, due to Mojo wiping his memories, though he still retained his sense of honor and heroism. [Exiles (1st series) #72-74]
Proteus jumped to a world in the year 2099 and, seeking a hardier form, possessed the body of this world’s cruel and vicious Hulk. Proteus’ actions drew the attention of Miguel O’Hara, Spider-Man, who joined forces to with the Exiles to stop Proteus. Surprisingly, Proteus was not interested in fighting and only wanted to talk to Blink. He confessed that he still retained all of Mimic’s memories including his love for Blink, leaving him confused.
However, before they could take the conversation further, Blink was rescued by Longshot. Proteus considered sticking around in this reality, but was convinced by Spider-Man to leave, though not before he unmasked Miguel before the world. With no place to hide on his world, and feeling responsible for urging Proteus to return to the multiverse, Spider-Man joined the Exiles. [Exiles (1st series) #75-76]
In the Panoptichron, the Exiles were informed by the Timebreakers that they had altered the course of the last two universes they had visited and were scolded for not giving their mission of repairing damaged realities greater priority. The team, Blink in particular, refused to allow Mimic’s murderer to go free.
Unfortunately for the Exiles, Proteus next visited one of the Hyperions that Beak had recruited to help stop his evil counterpart. Proteus manipulated Hyperion and his Squadron Supreme into believing the Exiles had abandoned Beak and had gone rogue. As soon as they arrived on Earth-712, the Squadron captured the team and put them on trial. Fortunately, Heather was able to communicate with both groups via the Timebroker interface and show the Squadron the Exiles were on the side of good. Furthermore, with the information available in the Crystal Palace, the team were able to help the Squadron take down the oppressive government that had seized control of their world. However, the Squadron were not content to leave the Exiles unsupervised, and also wished to aid in taking down Proteus. Squadron member Power Princess, Zarda, joined the team’s ranks, much to their chagrin. [Exiles (1st series) #77-78]
Power Princess immediately began to throw her weight around, and a deflated Blink willingly conceded leadership to the experienced warrior, hoping she might have a better chance of defeating Proteus. Zarda concocted a plan to intercept Proteus before his next target, a powerful despot Hulk known as the Maestro, who ruled a dystopian future. The team formed an alliance with the Maestro and ambushed Proteus when he arrived.
Unfortunately, things went awry when Power Princess accidentally struck the Maestro instead of Proteus’ Hulk form. In the subsequent three-way struggle, Morph’s protective metal strip was knocked loose from his head, which allowed Proteus to possess him. Unlike previous hosts, Proteus mocked the devastated team by telling them Morph’s cells were not deteriorating, which meant Morph would be his host forever. [Exiles (1st series) #79-80]
With the newfound potential offered by his new body Proteus headed back to his home reality, Earth-616. However, Heather was prepared for this and redirected Proteus to Count-Earth, an artificially created Earth on the opposite side of the sun to the true Earth (long story). With renewed determination, Blink seized control of the Exiles back from Power Princess and came up with a new plan. Sabretooth and Longshot tracked Proteus, while Spider-Man and Power Princess returned to Zarda’s world to retrieve special brainwashing technology.
Proteus pulled the same trick as he did on Zarda’s world, tricking allies into fighting the Exiles for him. This didn’t last long, though, before Proteus revealed his true nature and nearly destroyed Counter-Earth with an arsenal of nukes seized from a conquered Atlantis. Blink placed the 
brainwashing technology into an Atlantean crown without Proteus’s knowledge. When Proteus put it on, the device wiped all of his memories, except for Morph’s memories. Proteus now effectively believed he was Morph, and was imprisoned forever in a body that wouldn’t fail. With their world tour now over, the Exiles returned to the Crystal Palace, with “Morph” in tow, to work out what to do next. [Exiles (1st series) #81-82]