Chapter Summaries

Michael fought Kang with magic and advanced armor, but Kang's spatially striking energy blades overwhelmed him. A spell-created duplicate struck Kang and left him injured, but Michael disappeared before the guards arrived, and Kang returned to the palace disguised as King T'Challa.

• Michael shattered Kang's force field and charged him with his greatsword, but a golden blade intercepted the strike.
• Kang attacked Michael with unpredictable energy blades, knocked away his sword, wounded him, and bound him with energy chains.
• A duplicate created with Ekron Shape appeared behind Kang and struck him with a magically empowered greatsword, blasting him into a crater.
• Kang crawled out with minor injuries, then found the sky empty as footsteps approached from the palace.
• Kang transformed into King T'Challa, learned that Princess Shuri was missing, and ordered the guards to prepare a meeting.

At S.W.O.R.D. Headquarters, Michael told Shuri and the team that Kang controlled Wakanda and posed a threat beyond their current capabilities. Shuri revealed that Kang planned to use Wakanda’s army to conquer Africa, while the chapter ended with an impersonated T’Challa announcing Wakanda would open its borders and display its strength.

• Michael introduced Shuri to the S.W.O.R.D. team and explained that she had been brought to their headquarters for help.
• Michael said Ultron had infiltrated the Wakandan palace and that Kang, a man from the forty-first century, controlled him and sought to erase Michael.
• Michael admitted Kang’s technology made him a formidable opponent, though he had ideas for fighting him.
• Shuri said Kang’s people were impersonating her father and brother and intended to use Wakanda’s army to unify Africa.
• King T’Challa announced that Wakanda would open its borders and reveal its strength to the world.

Wakanda’s assassins eliminated most of Africa’s warlords, plunging the continent into chaos and raising Michael’s fears about Kang’s plans. Michael prepared to confront Kang in a prototype Reality Stone Armor, then asked Sherry to learn more about the situation inside Wakanda.

• Assassins using advanced technology killed over ninety percent of Africa’s warlord leaders and other powerful figures within two days.
• Michael concluded that Kang and Ultron had enabled Wakanda’s campaign and worried that Kang might aim to conquer more than Africa.
• Michael judged that his current equipment would not be enough to defeat Kang and decided to use Plan B.
• Sherry warned Michael that the new suit was only a prototype, but confirmed that its modules and startup system worked.
• Michael revealed the black-and-red Reality Stone Armor, powered by the Reality Stone, and told Sherry to question Princess Shuri about Wakanda.

Wakanda’s forces prepared to go to war under the fake T'Challa, until the real Black Panther and the Avengers arrived and exposed Ultron. Inside the palace, Michael confronted Kang and repelled Ultron’s Destroyer armor with a single blow, then turned to face Kang.

• Wakabi told the fake T'Challa that Wakanda’s spies had been notified and its army was ready to move.
• The real Black Panther emerged from a crashed drone and revealed that the King and the T'Challa leading the troops were impostors who had murdered his father.
• Iron Man, Captain America, Hawkeye, and the Avengers arrived, and the fake T'Challa ordered Wakanda’s forces to attack them.
• Kang watched the fighting from the Royal Palace with Ultron’s surviving core inside the Destroyer armor and said he was waiting for someone more dangerous.
• Michael entered the palace wearing the prototype Reality Armor and blocked the Destroyer’s punch before kicking it into the floor.
• Michael faced Kang and told him it was his turn.

Michael used the Reality Stone’s power to erase Ultron from the Destroyer Armor, then fought Kang with his upgraded Reality Armor. He left Kang battered and struggling as the battle continued.

• Michael’s Reality Stone-infused kick damaged the Destroyer Armor and struck Ultron’s program directly.
• Ultron failed to escape the Destroyer Armor, and Michael erased his program, leaving the armor inert.
• Michael blasted Kang out of the palace with his Infinity Stone-powered pulse cannon.
• Michael tore apart Kang’s energy attack, shattered his armor’s defensive barrier, and blasted him into a crater.
• Kang teleported behind Michael and attacked, but Michael blocked his punch and drove him back with an elbow strike.

Michael used the Reality Stone in his armor to withstand Kang’s increasingly powerful attacks, leaving Kang’s weapons unable to harm him. Kang exhausted his suit’s energy with a devastating beam, but Michael remained unharmed.

• Kang fired a barrage of weapons at Michael, but the Reality Stone’s radiance nullified every attack.
• Michael dodged Kang’s energy blasts and struck him, damaging his armor and forcing him back.
• Kang activated every weapon system on his suit, including a black hole, but Michael’s Magic Circle erased the attacks.
• Kang poured all his armor’s energy into a beam powerful enough to destroy Wakanda, but Michael’s Magic Circle dispersed it.
• Kang ran out of energy and stared in disbelief as Michael stood unharmed.

Michael nearly defeated Kang, but his Reality Stone cannon malfunctioned, allowing Kang to escape back to the future. At his headquarters, Kang ordered his forces to prepare for a large-scale jump to the twenty-first century.

• Kang realized his time anchor had failed while his armor's time module rebooted and its energy ran low.
• Michael charged a Reality Stone cannon through a Magic Circle, but the prototype's energy disrupted its Nano-Vibranium and the weapon failed.
• Kang's time anchor came back online, and he escaped just before Michael's pulse beam hit him.
• Michael and Sherry discussed the prototype's flaws as the armor repaired itself.
• Kang returned to his headquarters and ordered all combat units stationed on Earth to prepare for a large-scale spacetime jump into the twenty-first century.

Michael and Sherry assessed the dangers of the Reality Armor after Kang escaped through time, while Wakanda recovered from the battle and T'Challa became its king and joined the Avengers. The crisis seemed over, but a greater threat was about to begin.

• Sherry analyzed Kang's energy signature and concluded he had likely left Earth in this era, while warning Michael that the Infinity Stones could damage both the Reality Armor and his body.
• Sherry told Michael that Princess Shuri had returned to Wakanda and promised the nation's future support for S.W.O.R.D.
• The Reality Stone erased Ultron, and Thor returned the Destroyer Armor to Asgard.
• T'Challa exposed Kang and Ultron's counterfeit android, took the throne, ended Wakanda's planned invasion, and chose to open the nation to the world.
• T'Challa joined the Avengers as Black Panther, and the group believed the turmoil had ended even as a greater crisis began.

Wanda traveled to Mexico to meet Lorna Dane, but found the mutant stronghold empty and was ambushed by a mechanical impostor and two attackers. After defeating them, she used Chaos Magic to uncover what had happened in the building and was left troubled by the discovery.

• Wanda researched Lorna Dane and traveled to the Mexican hideout to talk to her.
• Wanda found the stronghold deserted, entered the unlocked building, and encountered someone posing as Lorna.
• Wanda deflected the impostor's electric attack, disarmed her, and knocked her unconscious after she charged with a dagger.
• Wanda sensed and defeated two more attackers hiding nearby.
• Wanda discovered that the three attackers were mostly mechanical and read their memories to learn what had happened at the stronghold.

Lorna Dane and the other mutants were captured and taken to Krakoa Island, where cyborg soldiers hunted them for a reality show. After Wanda Maximoff arrived and warned them they were in trouble, Sherry told Michael that Wanda had also been captured, prompting him to stop working in alarm.

• Lorna woke in a jungle, killed a cyborg attacker with her magnetic powers, and learned that John Proudstar and the other mutants had also been brought there.
• John said disguised enemies had ambushed them, while Blink revealed that her portals could only reach places nearby.
• Cyborg soldiers surrounded the mutants, but Wanda Maximoff appeared and blasted the attackers away.
• Wanda identified the location as Krakoa Island and warned the group that they were in trouble.
• Sherry told Michael that Krakoa was a mutant prison where captives were hunted for a reality show, and that Lorna Dane's group were that week's featured targets.
• Sherry revealed that Wanda had also gone to the island, and Michael stopped working in alarm.

Wanda and Lorna fought Deadpool and his enhanced soldiers on Krakoa Island while a television crew broadcast the hunt. When the mutants began gaining ground, the show's producer ordered the release of a Sentinel.

• Wanda explained that the island was a government-approved mutant prison in Genosha where a production crew hunted mutants for television.
• Deadpool led an army of enhanced soldiers in an attack on the mutants, and Lorna and Wanda became the group's main defenders.
• As they fought together, Lorna and Wanda coordinated their powers and admitted they had both wanted to talk to each other.
• Wanda and Lorna blasted Deadpool and the soldiers, prompting Deadpool's employer to complain that the two women were overpowering his forces.
• The studio's producer ordered the release of a Sentinel when the mutants threatened to reach the crew.

Wanda and the mutants fought their way through the hunting program’s forces, only to face a Sentinel that could adapt to mutant powers. A mysterious figure in black armor destroyed it in one strike, and Wanda identified him as her boss.

• Augustus admitted during the live broadcast that the hunting program was losing control, but the signal was cut off from the public.
• A black-armored figure stormed the studio, defeated the guards, and confronted the man in charge.
• Wanda and the mutants regrouped after defeating the modified soldiers and searched for a vehicle to escape.
• A Sentinel emerged from underground, and John realized it had already adapted to the mutants’ abilities.
• Wanda scattered the mutants to save them from the Sentinel’s blast, while Lorna prepared to attack it.
• The black-armored figure destroyed the Sentinel with an energy beam, and Wanda called him Boss.

Michael helped Wanda bring Lorna and her Mutant companions into S.W.O.R.D., where Wanda arranged a new town for them to live in. A machine then detected an X-Gene in Wanda and labeled her threat level extremely high, leaving her wondering whether she was a Mutant.

• Michael arrived on Krakoa Island, and Lorna failed to use her magnetic powers to remove his helmet.
• Wanda invited Lorna and her injured companions to join S.W.O.R.D., and Michael agreed, making Wanda responsible for them.
• Wanda organized the group’s registration and bought a remote town for them to use as a base.
• Lorna showed Wanda a machine that detected X-Genes, and it identified Wanda as a powerful Mutant with an extremely high threat level.
• Wanda questioned whether the machine was working and wondered if she was actually a Mutant.

Wanda told Michael she thought she was a Mutant, and he reassured her that it did not change his trust in her. Their conversation was interrupted when an unknown force invaded Earth, leaving the Avengers fighting invading machines in New York as a massive golden war machine approached.

• Wanda told Michael she thought she was a Mutant, and he revealed that he had known she and Pietro carried active X-Genes since they joined S.W.O.R.D.
• Michael told Wanda that her origins did not matter and that she remained one of the people he trusted most; Wanda thanked him before leaving.
• Sherry questioned Michael about his avoidance of close bonds, but their conversation was interrupted by alarms reporting an attack across Earth.
• Sherry reported that warships and combat machines had appeared throughout the world and were attacking urban areas.
• The Avengers fought robotic soldiers in New York while helping civilians evacuate, but a nearly twenty-meter golden machine armed with shoulder cannons approached.
• Spider-Man asked Tony whether he had armor as large as the machine, and Tony said he would get one after the battle.

The Avengers and forces around the world struggled against a simultaneous invasion by powerful machines, while the Sky Sword Mothership came under attack. Kang the Conqueror appeared before Michael and announced he had come to fulfill his promise to destroy him.

• A giant golden machine destroyed a military jet with an unknown weapon after surviving its missiles, and Tony questioned whether the Avengers could stop it.
• Rhodes reported that strategic targets across the East Coast and countries worldwide were under simultaneous attack, identifying the Avengers as New York's strategic target.
• Sherry reported attacks on Latveria, Wakanda, and S.W.O.R.D. branches around the world, while the enemy overwhelmed their forces.
• An unknown attacker struck the Sky Sword Mothership, and Michael asked Sherry to show him the spacecraft outside.
• Sherry identified the enemy's technology as similar to Kang the Conqueror's, and Kang appeared in Michael's office to announce his plan to destroy him.

Kang launched an invasion of Earth, and S.W.O.R.D. fought to hold off his superior forces while Michael located Kang’s concealed ship. Kang’s subordinate warned that the temporal jumps might leave a trail, but Kang trusted his shielding system to keep Michael from finding him.

• Kang told Michael that he intended to conquer the era and erase him as a threat to the future.
• Kang’s fleet attacked S.W.O.R.D.’s mothership, which deployed Kree aircraft, Doom’s Iron Warriors, and heavy weapons in defense.
• Sherry reported that enemy reinforcements were approaching and that S.W.O.R.D.’s ground branches and Earth’s other forces were badly outmatched.
• Michael found Kang’s stealth ship and ordered his team to prepare for a face-to-face confrontation.
• Kang’s subordinate reported that the invasion was progressing against the Avengers and most nations, with S.W.O.R.D. and Latveria offering the main resistance.
• Kang dismissed his subordinate’s concern that the temporal jumps could be tracked, relying on the Faster-than-Light Particle Shielding System.

As New York’s defenders struggled against the endless future army, Black Knight contacted Tony Stark with a way to make the invaders retreat. Tony rallied the Avengers to attack the motherships’ Time Anchors, though the identity and motives of the enemy remained unknown.

• Thor and Iron Man destroyed one golden giant machine, but aircraft and more machines continued attacking New York.
• Falcon, Hawkeye, Spider-Man, and Vision fought to protect civilians as the Avengers’ strength and ammunition dwindled.
• Iron Man lured pursuing aircraft into a parking garage and caused its collapse, then joined up with War Machine.
• Black Knight told Tony that the army came from the forty-first century and that destroying a mothership’s Time Anchor would pull its forces back to their own time.
• Black Knight cut off communication before Tony could ask who led the invasion, and Tony announced a new plan to the Avengers.

The Avengers began targeting Kang’s motherships after learning that destroying their Time Anchors made the ships and nearby forces vanish. Michael led a covert assault team into Kang’s flagship, where the members split into three groups to disable its Time Anchor systems, while Venom sensed danger ahead.

• The Avengers destroyed a mothership’s Time Anchor, sending the vessel and nearby combat units back through time, and Tony spread the discovery to forces worldwide.
• Kang’s ship detected and destroyed an invisible S.W.O.R.D. craft, unaware that it was a decoy for Michael’s team, who infiltrated the flagship using Wanda’s magic and Michael’s spells.
• Michael explained that the team had to disable three devices linked to the army’s Time Anchors, then assigned the members to three groups and set a half-hour time limit.
• Wanda and Gwen formed the first team, Venom, Jessica, and Quicksilver the second, and Daisy and Winter Soldier the third as they headed for their targets.
• Venom stopped on the second team’s route, sensed that they were surrounded, and warned Jessica.

Jessica, Venom, and Pietro fought their way to the faster-than-light particle anchor, where Ted ambushed them and Pietro faced Kang’s elite assassin. Pietro outmaneuvered Ted in a speed battle and left him injured, but the confrontation was still unresolved.

• Jessica, Venom, and Pietro defeated successive groups of future soldiers and reached the particle-release area after about fifteen minutes.
• Jessica questioned the lack of guards, but Pietro moved toward the entrance while Venom sensed an ambush.
• Ted struck Venom into a wall and wounded Jessica before attacking Pietro.
• Pietro caught Ted’s kick and exchanged rapid attacks with him, demonstrating that he could track Ted’s movements.
• Pietro evaded Ted’s punches, feinted a neck grab, and kicked Ted across the corridor.
• Ted called Pietro a primitive human, and Pietro replied that he was more than just fast.

Pietro fought Ted, Kang’s speed-focused lieutenant, in a corridor and used his S.W.O.R.D. training and combat uniform to defeat him. Ted crashed into the final room’s door, leaving Pietro standing after their high-speed battle.

• Pietro faced Ted, whose specialized battle suit let him match and then surpass Pietro’s speed.
• Ted activated his suit’s thirty-second maximum-speed system and attacked Pietro with a relentless series of blows.
• Pietro retreated down the corridor while studying Ted’s attacks, until a metal wall blocked his escape.
• Ted formed a pale-blue energy dagger and launched a full-speed strike at Pietro.
• Pietro unleashed a powerful boot-assisted kick, sending Ted flying into the final room’s door.