Blink
Clarice Ferguson
- Real Name: Clarice Ferguson
- Known Aliases: None
- Identity: Secret
- Occupation: Adventurer, reality traveler, freedom fighter
- Legal Status: Citizen of the United States, Earth-295
- Place of Birth: Cartusia, Bahamas
- Marital Status: Single
- Known Relatives: Unidentified parents (deceased), Sabretooth (surrogate father)
- Group Affiliation: Formerly Exiles, Imperial Guard (Earth-552) X-Men (Earth-295)
- Base of Operation: Formerly mobile
- Education: Grade school (some education with Magneto)
- Height: 5 ft. 5 in.
- Weight: 125 lbs.
- Eyes: Green
- Hair: Magenta
- Other Distinguishing Features: Blink has pointed ears, magenta-colored skin and hair. She also has facial tattoos given to her while she was in Sinister's Breeding Pens.
Clarice Ferguson, known as Blink, is a mutant native to Earth-295, the dystopian reality known as the Age of Apocalypse. Born with magenta skin, pointed ears, and distinctive facial markings, she was visibly a mutant from birth. At age four, her parents immigrated to the United States seeking medical answers for her appearance. When Apocalypse seized control of North America on Earth-295, Mister Sinister murdered her parents and placed Clarice in the Breeding Pens. There she endured genetic experimentation by Dark Beast and abuse from the Sugar Man, while forming a close friendship with fellow prisoner Illyana Rasputin. During these experiments, Clarice’s mutant teleportation powers manifested. She adopted the codename “Blink” after the sound her portals emitted.
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Blink was freed during an X-Men raid on the Pens by Sabretooth and Weapon X (Logan) of Earth-295. Sabretooth took her in and raised her as his own daughter. Despite his violent history as one of Apocalypse’s former Horsemen, he trained her with discipline and genuine care. Under his tutelage, Blink became a capable combatant and eventually earned a place among the X-Men of Earth-295. She proved her worth by teleporting the team to the Moon to confront the Horseman Death—her first teleport of such extreme range. Thereafter, she committed herself to preventing other young mutants from suffering the fate she had endured.
On a reconnaissance mission with Sunfire of Earth-295, Blink uncovered Apocalypse’s planned culling of Chicago. Forced to retreat, she teleported back to the X-Men’s base but accidentally allowed one of Apocalypse’s Prelates to follow. Though the threat was neutralized, she was reprimanded for the error. Determined to stop the culling, she joined a strike team led by Rogue of Earth-295, including Sabretooth. At his request, Blink teleported Sabretooth to confront Holocaust. After evacuating Chicago, she discovered Sabretooth gravely injured. Enraged, Blink confronted Holocaust directly and teleported him into a vat of acid.
Soon afterward, Blink teleported the X-Men into Apocalypse’s citadel on Earth-295 to rescue Magneto and his son Charles. Although the X-Men appeared to triumph, a nuclear strike launched by human forces in Europe threatened to annihilate them. Before impact, Blink was displaced from Earth-295 as the timeline destabilized. She arrived in the Panoptichron—also known as the Crystal Palace—an extradimensional nexus outside conventional reality. There she met Magnus of Earth-27, Mimic of Earth-12, Morph of Earth-1081, Nocturne of Earth-2182, and Thunderbird of Earth-1100. They were informed by the Timebroker, later revealed to be a construct of the Timebreakers (an insectoid alien species), that they had become unhinged from time. To earn restoration, they would have to repair damaged timelines. Unlike the others, Blink was warned that failure would mean complete erasure, as Earth-295 had effectively collapsed.
Given the Tallus—a device that assigned missions and monitored progress—the team, calling themselves the Exiles, began traveling the multiverse. Their first mission on Earth-1815 resulted in tragedy when Magnus sacrificed himself. Recognizing that Mimic’s assumptions based on Earth-12 were jeopardizing missions, he relinquished leadership to Blink. Drawing on her wartime experience from Earth-295, Blink accepted command and guided the team with pragmatic resolve. She and Mimic eventually developed a romantic relationship.
On Earth-2600, the Exiles encountered Weapon X, a second team assembled by the Timebreakers for more ruthless missions. This team included Sabretooth of Earth-295, Deadpool of Earth-5021, Hulk of Earth-1029, Spider of Earth-15, Storm of Earth-23895, and Vision of Earth-10101. Blink was reunited with her surrogate father, but the reunion soured when the mission required killing a child, David Richards of Earth-2600. Blink and the Exiles refused. After defeating Weapon X, Sabretooth remained behind on Earth-2600 to raise David and avert a catastrophic future.
During a mission to Earth-8545, Blink was infected by the techno-organic Vi-Lock virus. She was cured with an immunity injection derived from the blood of Asgardian gods before the infection became irreversible. Shortly thereafter, the Timebroker declared her reality repaired and replaced her with Magik of Earth-4210. Instead of returning her to a restored Earth-295, Blink was secretly transported back to Earth-2600 to reunite with Sabretooth. The details of what transpired there remain largely unspoken by her.
Following the death of Sunfire (Mariko Yashida of Earth-2109), who was killed by Mimic while under the influence of a Brood egg implanted on Earth-2942, the Timebreakers reinstated Blink to the Exiles. The Tallus returned to her, and she resumed leadership. On Earth-4400, she defeated the renegade Hyperion of Earth-4023 by redirecting his optic beams into his own spine, crippling him. Later, Hyperion usurped control of the Timebroker within the Crystal Palace, manipulating Exiles missions until Blink and her teammates exposed and defeated him.
The Exiles subsequently faced Proteus of Reality-58163, a reality-warping mutant who possessed Mimic’s body. Despite Blink’s determination to save him, Proteus ultimately burned out Mimic’s form. After stopping Proteus, who later possessed Morph on the Franklin Richards-created Counter-Earth, Blink returned Mimic’s body to Earth-12 for burial among his X-Men.
Further missions included catastrophic events such as the total destruction of Earth-187319 and battles against multiversal threats including Mad Jim Jaspers and the Fury. The cumulative trauma of repeated losses weighed heavily on Blink. Ultimately, she chose to step away from the Exiles and relocated to Earth-3470 alongside Nocturne and Thunderbird. Before departing, she assisted Quentin Quire of Earth-91172 in assembling a replacement Exiles team and left Sabretooth in operational command.
Though she is no longer serving full-time as a reality-hopper, Blink remains one of the most experienced multiversal tacticians among the Exiles. A survivor of Earth-295 whose leadership was forged in apocalypse and tempered across the Omniverse.
Strength Level: Blink possesses the normal human strength of a woman of her age, height and build.
Known Superhuman Powers: Blink can create biomolecular displacement warps of various sizes by manipulating the electromagnetic fields of a particular area; a "blink" sound effect accompanies the portal creation. By using these warps, she can instantly move matter from one place to another by passing through an unknown dimension, and then instantaneously emerge in her own dimension at a certain distance from her point of departure. The matter that is being teleported sometimes returns, while other times it is held in stasis within the other dimension. She can open a warp and transport parts of her body or other objects, allowing her to attack opponents from different positions simultaneously or even redirect an opponent's attack back at them. Once a portal is open, it remains open until she uses her powers to close it. Blink can use her teleportation powers offensively by throwing a javelin at a specific area of an opponent's body and teleporting it instead of the entire person. She can also close a portal before someone is finished passing through, thus severing a part of their body in the process.
The longer the distance and increased amount of mass that is being teleported, the harder and more exhausting it is for her to create a portal. However, she can make smaller "jumps" by opening one portal right after the other in order to reduce the physical strain on herself. Blink's powers have not been fully tested, and it is uncertain the amount of mass that Blink can teleport before losing consciousness; however she has been known to be able to teleport a large cannon weighing approximately 138,000 lbs. while teleporting two other objects at the same time with no physical strain.
Blink is highly skilled in hand-to-hand combat and acrobatics, while having an innate ability to throw javelins with great accuracy and proficient at making makeshift javelins out of surrounding material. Blink often uses her powers to imbue these javelins, carried in a quiver on her back, with energies to assist her opening warps. By throwing them at a desired area, she can open a portal around the javelin's target. Since living at the Crystal Palace, she has created a supply of crystal javelins and by creating a portal to the Crystal Palace, she can replenish her supply.
When she was the Exiles' leader, Blink wore the Tallus device, which the insectoid alien explorers used to communicate with the Exiles, specifically informing them what had to be done in order to save realities. At times, the Tallus would create a holographic image that was referred to as the "Time Broker” to communicate through. However, it was later discovered that the Tallus could create other holographic images as well and later often took the form of Heather Hudson of Earth-3470.
- First appearance, rescued from Sinster's Breeding Pens by Sabretooth (X-Men: Alpha, 1995)
- Servers on Magneto's X-Men, teleports team to the Moon to confront Holocaust (Astonishing X-Men #1-4, 1995)
- Earth-295 collapses; Blink's fate appears to be sealed (X-Men: Omega, 1995)
- Displaced from Earth-295, brought to the Panoptichron and given the Tallus, Forms the Exiles with heros from other realities (Exiles #1, 2001)
- Magnus sacrifices himself on the team’s first mission and Mimic begins stepping back from leadership (Exiles #2–4, 2001)
- Officially becomes field leader of the Exiles after Mimic relinquishes command (Exiles #5, 2001)
- Reunites with Sabretooth of Earth-295, refuses the mission to kill David Richards of Earth-2600, and Sabretooth remains behind to raise the child (Exiles #13–14, 2002)
- Infected by the Vi-Lock techno-organic virus on Earth-8545 and is cured with an Asgardian-derived immunity injection (Exiles #19–20, 2002)
- Told her reality has been repaired, removed from the team, and replaced by Magik of Earth-4210; she is secretly transported to Earth-2600 (Exiles #23, 2003)
- Following Sunfire’s death at the hands of a Brood-infected Mimic, Blink is reinstated to the Exiles and resumes leadership (Exiles #37–38, 2003)
- Cripples Hyperion of Earth-4023 by redirecting his optic beams into his spine (Exiles #40–43, 2003–2004)
- Exposes Hyperion’s manipulation of the Timebroker within the Crystal Palace and defeats him (Exiles #44–50, 2004)
- Proteus of Earth-58163 possesses Mimic, burns out his body, and Blink fails to save him (Exiles #61–65, 2005)
- Blink returns Mimic’s body to Earth-12 for burial among his X-Men (Exiles #66, 2005)
- An entire reality (Earth-187319) is destroyed during a mission, further traumatizing the team (Exiles #79–80, 2006)
- Helps defeat Mad Jim Jaspers and the Fury in a major multiversal crisis (Exiles #84–85, 2006)
- Steps away from active Exiles duty, relocates to Earth-3470 with Nocturne and Thunderbird, and leaves Sabretooth in charge (Exiles #100, 2008)
