Chapter Summaries

Bucky Barnes recovered his memories and learned that Michael had freed him from Hydra’s brainwashing. Michael offered him a chance to help destroy Hydra, and Bucky agreed to join him.

• Bucky remembered his identity as a Howling Commando and Captain America's closest friend.
• Michael told Bucky that he had removed the brainwashing and explained how Hydra had controlled him.
• Michael offered Bucky a choice between joining his campaign against Hydra or leaving to start a new life.
• Bucky accepted Michael's offer and asked when they would begin.

The Winter Soldier raided a Hydra facility and killed Sitwell, while Michael urged Nick Fury to launch a simultaneous assault on Hydra’s hidden strongholds. To secure Fury’s trust, Michael stepped out of his armor and introduced himself in person.

• The Winter Soldier infiltrated a Hydra facility, killed the guards in his path, and shot Sitwell after Sitwell offered to surrender.
• Michael showed Fury a map of more than a dozen Hydra strongholds and explained that they had to be attacked at the same time to prevent Hydra from relocating and destroying its intelligence.
• Fury said he could not risk sending S.H.I.E.L.D. agents into an unverified operation without sufficient trust or approval from the World Security Council.
• Michael opened his armor, revealed himself to Fury, and offered to get acquainted properly.

Phil Coulson verified Michael’s Bill Walter identity, while Nick Fury prepared to act against Hydra without exposing his sources. Fury revealed Hydra’s infiltration to the World Security Council as S.H.I.E.L.D. launched simultaneous attacks that destroyed most of Hydra’s hidden top-level branches.

• Phil Coulson investigated Bill Walter’s office and reported to Nick Fury that the identity and its associates appeared legitimate.
• Nick Fury considered the information Michael had provided and called the World Security Council to discuss Hydra’s infiltration of S.H.I.E.L.D.
• Nick Fury told the Council that Hydra had infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D. and announced that the operation against it had already begun.
• S.H.I.E.L.D. forces attacked Hydra strongholds simultaneously with missiles, cloaked Quinjets, and assault teams.
• Nick Fury received victory reports as the operation ended within an hour, with most top-level Hydra branches destroyed and three Leaders killed.

Baron Strucker fled Hydra’s collapse to a secret forest base, where he prepared to rebuild his forces with Ivan Vanko’s technology and his own armor. An alarm interrupted his plans when the base came under attack by an unidentified lone assailant.

• Baron Strucker escaped overseas with his branch’s valuable assets before Fury’s offensive and hid at a secret base.
• Strucker met Ivan Vanko in the laboratory and examined the plasma-blade emitter Ivan had built.
• Ivan revealed Strucker’s gray-black armor, equipped with the powerful Satan’s Claw.
• Strucker resolved to rebuild Hydra using his preserved forces, armor, and superpowered twins.
• An alarm announced an attack, and a communications officer told Strucker the enemy appeared to be one person, not S.H.I.E.L.D.

Michael broke through Hydra’s defenses at Baron Strucker’s stronghold, but an energy shield stopped his attack on the building. As Strucker prepared his own armor and refused to deploy the unready Twins, Michael began casting a large-scale spell over the facility.

• Michael and Sherry destroyed Hydra’s turrets and interception squad, including two Laser Tanks, as he fought through the stronghold’s defenses.
• Baron Strucker watched from the control room, ordered Ivan Vanko to ready his armor, and directed the facility’s energy toward the shield.
• Michael found that the building’s shield resisted his Pulse Cannon, then began chanting instead of scanning for its generator.
• Strucker assumed Michael was searching for the shield’s energy source, but dark clouds gathered above the base and a vast magical barrier formed over the building.

Michael breached Hydra's base and confronted the superpowered twins, Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch. He recognized that the Scarlet Witch wielded Chaos Magic as she unleashed her power against him.

• Strucker ordered the elderly man in a lab coat to send out the twins after Hydra's shield failed.
• Michael used an illusion to draw Hydra agents' fire, then defeated them and located the underground core area.
• Quicksilver attacked Michael with successive supersonic blows, and the Scarlet Witch appeared in the hall.
• The Scarlet Witch unleashed dark crimson energy, and Michael identified her power as Chaos Magic linked to Chthon.

Michael fought the Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver, using Sherry’s calculations and Lotus Bombs to defeat them. As he faced the newly emerged Baron Strucker in his steel armor, Strucker said he was ready to talk.

• The Scarlet Witch attacked Michael with Chaos Magic, but he shattered her torrent and drove her back.
• The Scarlet Witch and Quicksilver attacked Michael together, and Sherry helped him predict Quicksilver’s movements with targeted missiles.
• Michael guided Quicksilver into a calculated route and knocked him into a pillar with a backward kick.
• The Scarlet Witch bound Michael’s armor with Chaos Magic, but Michael’s real body struck her from behind with a Pulse Cannon while an illusion distracted her.
• Michael detected something rising beneath the hall and retreated as Baron Strucker burst through the floor in steel armor and offered to talk.

Michael fought Baron Strucker and Ivan Vanko in their upgraded heavy armor, using magic and his suit’s thrusters to counter their weapons. After the energy clash damaged the hall, he saved Quicksilver from falling debris and let him and Scarlet Witch leave.

• Ivan Vanko ambushed Michael with upgraded electric whips, damaging his armor and hurling him through a pillar.
• Baron Strucker attacked Michael with a plasma lightsaber while Ivan coordinated with him using his whips.
• Michael used magical enhancements and his thrusters to evade their attacks, then caught both weapons in Magic Circles and forced them to collide.
• The reactors’ energy clash blasted the two armored suits apart and caused pillars and part of the ceiling to collapse.
• Michael used a Magic Circle to pull Quicksilver clear of falling debris, then told Scarlet Witch to leave with her brother.
• Scarlet Witch helped Quicksilver out of the hall while Michael turned back toward Strucker and Ivan.

Michael defeated Baron Strucker and revealed that a self-learning AI he created had secretly infiltrated Hydra’s network, feeding him intelligence for years. Strucker denied knowing where the twins’ experimental data was, and Michael prepared to use magic to make him talk.

• Strucker escaped his disabled armor, but Michael crushed Satan's Claw and forced him to surrender.
• Strucker asked how Michael had uncovered Hydra’s secrets, and Michael explained that he had planted a backdoor that evolved into an AI hidden throughout Hydra’s network.
• Michael revealed that the AI, whose prototype was Sherry, had continuously gathered Hydra’s intelligence and passed it to him.
• Strucker admitted that the Scepter had been transferred elsewhere, and Michael’s armor confirmed he was telling the truth.
• Strucker lied about not knowing where the twins’ experimental data was, so Michael gathered dark green magical energy to interrogate him.

Michael explained that Hydra’s scattered remnants remained embedded throughout the world despite the organization’s defeat, and revealed his plan to take its place before it could recover. The chapter left him preparing to seize control of Hydra’s surviving network.

• The world learned that Hydra had been crushed and S.H.I.E.L.D. dissolved, while Phil Coulson led a new S.H.I.E.L.D. formed from loyal agents.
• Nick Fury gave Coulson the Toolbox, which contained classified S.H.I.E.L.D. files but omitted information about the Black Knight.
• Elizabeth brought Michael his cleaned suit and noticed the damaged Black Armor in his laboratory.
• Michael told Elizabeth he had encountered a redheaded girl who could wield Chaos Magic and had searched his books for information about it.
• Michael showed Elizabeth a map of Hydra remnants spread across the world and said he intended to take Hydra’s place before it could rebuild.

After Baron Strucker's death, Chris Bruno and other Hydra leaders fought over who would command the remaining forces. Michael killed the three contenders, took control, and ordered Rick Belloc to gather Strucker's followers as he announced Hydra would be replaced by something entirely different.

• Chris Bruno arrived at a bar where Hydra leaders had gathered to discuss uniting their forces and choosing a leader.
• Chris and the bearded man clashed over who deserved to lead, while the leather-jacketed man proposed taking control with his larger force.
• Michael blasted through the roof and killed the leather-jacketed man, the bearded man, and Chris within seconds.
• Michael demanded that the gathered Hydra members accept his command, and they lowered their guns.
• Michael appointed Rick Belloc to command the three dead leaders' organizations and gather Strucker's remaining followers within a week.
• Michael declared that Hydra would no longer exist and that he would build something different in its place.

Michael Passo rescued Wanda Maximoff and Pietro Maximoff from a group of thugs and recruited them into his new organization, promising to help Wanda develop her powers. Meanwhile, Daniel Whitehall learned that Hydra had been devastated and ordered Sunil Bakshi to pursue the Obelisk.

• Wanda Maximoff and Pietro Maximoff were cornered by thugs, but Michael Passo quickly defeated them before Wanda could use her powers.
• Michael revealed that he knew the twins and invited them to join his reorganized Hydra, offering them shelter, pay, and help with Wanda’s abilities.
• Wanda and Pietro accepted Michael’s offer, and he opened a magic portal for them to follow him through.
• Daniel Whitehall heard from Sunil Bakshi that Hydra’s leaders and forces had been captured or killed, including Baron Strucker’s apparent death at Dr. Norton’s hands.
• Whitehall showed Bakshi a file about the Obelisk and ordered him to obtain it, believing it could give them immense power.

Wanda and Pietro moved into a lavish mansion prepared for them by Elizabeth and learned they would officially work as special consultants for a Passo Group subsidiary. After Elizabeth took them shopping, Wanda questioned her about Mr. Passo, and Elizabeth defended him as an outstanding and good person.

• Elizabeth showed Wanda and Pietro the mansion that would be theirs, and Pietro raced through its rooms in excitement.
• Elizabeth explained that the house and its furnishings were gifts included in the twins' employment agreement, under which they would be special consultants for New Energy Development Creative Co., Ltd., a Passo Group subsidiary.
• Elizabeth took the twins shopping for clothes and daily necessities, and they returned to the Cadillac with new looks.
• Wanda asked Elizabeth whether she knew Mr. Passo's other identity and considered him dangerous.
• Elizabeth said she knew only what Mr. Passo allowed her to know and called him the most outstanding and best person she had ever met.
• Elizabeth dropped the twins off and told them to rest and contact her if they needed anything.

Michael Passo spent six months absorbing Hydra’s surviving forces and building S.W.O.R.D., a covert organization meant to monitor global threats and respond to supernatural dangers. With its systems operating, he began planning an elite team led directly by him, though it had only three candidates so far.

• Michael used his armored suit to force resistant Hydra remnants to surrender and join the new organization.
• Michael renamed the organization S.W.O.R.D. and built it to monitor threats using Hydra’s personnel, resources, and intelligence network.
• Sherry gained autonomous access to Hydra’s network after its artificial intelligence merged into part of her.
• S.W.O.R.D. began monitoring anomalies and superpowered activity, but Michael recognized it needed an elite response team.
• Michael reviewed the team’s three candidates: Bucky Barnes, Wanda Maximoff, and Pietro Maximoff.

Sky Sword agents and the Winter Soldier tried to capture a feral, armored boy at the docks, but he fought them off until Wanda subdued him with Chaos Magic. After the boy was sedated and taken into custody, Wanda tried to speak with the Winter Soldier, who ignored her and walked away.

• Sky Sword agents surrounded the black-scaled boy at the docks, but he charged through their gunfire and killed several agents with his claws.
• The Winter Soldier stopped the boy’s attack and fought him across the docks, but neither gained a clear advantage.
• Wanda arrived and struck the boy with Chaos Magic, pinning him against a shipping container and binding him in twisted steel.
• The Winter Soldier injected the boy with a sedative, and nearby agents moved in to take him away.
• Wanda tried to talk to the Winter Soldier, but he ignored her and left, prompting her to complain about working with him.

After completing S.W.O.R.D.'s initial setup, Michael began designing a lighter armor and testing a Vibranium composite. He then inspected a captured enhanced individual whose genes partially matched someone named Peter Parker.

• Michael created project X-06 from his current armor design and removed armor to increase its speed and mobility.
• Michael had Sherry scan a vial of Vibranium and test simulated composites to address the metal's weakness to sound waves.
• Michael went to the New Jersey S.W.O.R.D. Branch to examine an enhanced individual captured by Miss Maximoff and Sergeant Barnes.
• A doctor reported that the captive had damaged genes and armor grafted into his skin and spinal column.
• Michael learned the captive's closest genetic match was Peter Parker at 92.35% and took over the investigation.

Peter Parker, grieving Gwen Stacy and blaming himself for the harm Spider-Man caused, had abandoned his superhero identity and tried to return to ordinary life. When his Spider-Sense warned him of danger, a strange black-clad figure attacked him.

• Peter ignored Flash Thompson until Flash grabbed him, then struck him hard enough to leave him crumpled on the ground.
• Peter recalled how a spider exposed to Oz serum gave him powers and how Uncle Ben's death led him to become Spider-Man.
• Peter remembered telling Gwen Stacy his secret identity and losing her when Harry Osborn threw her from Washington Bridge.
• Peter gave up being Spider-Man so his superhero life would not endanger Aunt May.
• Peter dodged an attack from a red-haired stranger in a blue-black suit and tattered cape, who charged at him without answering his question.

Michael used Sherry to uncover a CIA cloning program called Spider-Warrior and interrogated its lead engineer, Dr. Ben McCarthy, about the escaped clone. McCarthy revealed that a hidden Master Controller ran a second laboratory, and Michael demanded its location.

• Michael ordered Sherry to search government and corporate networks for information about Spider-Man, cloning, and related projects.
• Sherry breached the CIA database and discovered the secret Spider-Warrior project, identifying Dr. Ben McCarthy as its lead cloning engineer.
• Michael intercepted Dr. Ben McCarthy in an underground parking garage and used his financial and personal information to pressure him into talking.
• Michael showed Dr. Ben McCarthy the escaped clone and learned that a lab accident had released three clones, including the violent Spider-Warrior.
• Dr. Ben McCarthy said an unknown Master Controller oversaw a second laboratory, and Michael demanded to know where it was.

Peter fought a black-clad web-shooting attacker in Queens, but the attacker abruptly fled after clutching his head in pain. At a CIA laboratory, staff prepared to alter a test subject’s memories before a black-armored intruder broke through the facility entrance.

• Peter traded blows and insults with a powerful black-clad man who knew Peter Parker was Spider-Man and could shoot webbing.
• The attacker slammed Peter into the ground, then suddenly clutched his head and fled over a wall.
• At a CIA biological laboratory, a suited supervisor ordered staff to stabilize a test subject’s memories for immediate deployment.
• Alarms announced an attack on the facility, and the suited supervisor ordered agents to shoot intruders on sight.
• A black-armored figure smashed through the facility’s heavy entrance doors, freezing the guards with his presence.

Michael raided the laboratory and rescued a clone of Gwen Stacy, while Peter returned home and found someone who looked exactly like himself in his room. The chapter ended with Peter facing his apparent double.

• Michael fought through the CIA agents and reached the laboratory control room.
• Sherry accessed the files and revealed that the girl in the vessel was a genetically enhanced Gwen Stacy clone created to destroy Peter Parker.
• Michael shut down the vessel, caught the unconscious girl, and arranged for Wanda to provide her with a guest room.
• Peter returned home bruised and muddy, then sensed danger coming from his room.
• Peter climbed through his window and froze when he saw someone who looked exactly like himself.