Chapter Summaries

Schiller dealt with Jeff and Toryk while Peter, Miles, and Polaris discussed assembling a spaceship crew. Polaris revealed that Havok had proposed to her, but she was unsure how she felt and asked Peter whether she and Wanda were alike.

• Schiller found Jeff in Central Park’s pond, carried him home, and watched Toryk swallow the sharkdog before he made the Flerken spit Jeff out.
• Peter, Miles, and Polaris shared fried chicken at Spider-Man’s Queens base and agreed to recruit Jason Todd, the Arkham Knight, as their fourth crewmate.
• Polaris took Peter and Miles to a bar after Peter noticed her gloom and pressed her to explain what was wrong.
• Polaris told Peter that Havok had proposed and that they had fought after she became angry.
• Peter asked what she thought about the proposal, and Polaris said she liked Havok but wondered whether she and Wanda were very alike.

Peter listened as Polaris explained how her troubled childhood had left her torn between wanting freedom and longing for a stable family, and he urged her to seek help from Doctor Schiller. Arkham Knight arrived at the bar, heard a brief account of her dilemma, and offered to talk to her.

• Peter told Polaris that Wanda had built the warm, stable family life she had always wanted, while Polaris seemed to value freedom and exploration.
• Polaris admitted that she and her siblings had all sought the stable family they lacked as children, and that the thought of marriage had brought her emotional needs into conflict with her life goals.
• Peter recognized that Polaris feared marriage might become a prison, and Polaris explained that she doubted Doctor Schiller could advise her because he had never faced the choice of starting a family.
• Peter cautioned Polaris against making a rash decision based on happy marriages and suggested seeing Doctor Schiller.
• Arkham Knight arrived, and Peter told him about Polaris's psychological struggle; Arkham Knight offered to speak with her.

Arkham Knight helped Polaris understand that her unresolved trauma could make accepting Havok's proposal harmful to them both. Polaris sought help from Schiller, who assured her that her PTSD could be treated and suggested she learn from Arkham Knight's complicated history with Batman.

• Arkham Knight told Polaris that Joker had kidnapped and tortured him for years while Batman failed to find him.
• Arkham Knight explained that severe trauma could not be healed by endlessly demanding emotional support from a loved one, prompting Polaris to reject Havok's proposal for now.
• Arkham Knight advised Polaris to ask Schiller about treatment before deciding how to speak with Havok.
• At dawn, Polaris went to Schiller and described her trauma; he said he could treat her PTSD.
• Schiller suggested that Polaris talk with Jason about his relationship with Batman, and Arkham Knight worried that his advice had created trouble for him.

The Robins visited Schiller to find teammates for their spaceship, while Pikachu invited Schiller to see the tavern he had opened on Centaurus. The chapter ended with Schiller unleashing Jeff on a group of fallen Featherfolk nobles who were terrorizing Pikachu’s customers.

• Dick, Tim, and Jason asked Schiller for advice on recruiting Spider-Man teammates, and Jason dismissed Pikachu’s suggestion that Pikachu join them as a mascot.
• Pikachu told Schiller that he had started a business on Centaurus and asked him to visit because the Three Great Empires were making things difficult.
• Schiller traveled with Pikachu and Jeff to Centaurus and saw that Pikachu had taken over and renovated a busy tavern on the black market.
• A group of fallen Featherfolk nobles entered the tavern, bullied the servers and customers, and ignored Pikachu’s demand that they stop.
• Schiller unclipped Jeff’s leash and pointed him toward the Featherfolk, prompting agonized screams in the tavern.

Schiller and Pikachu escaped the Shi'ar nobles’ raid, captured the attackers, and brought them to Yondu. Schiller persuaded Yondu to move his Ravagers to the Milky Way Galaxy to help guard the Grandmaster’s planned entertainment city, and Yondu agreed to seek ransom money from the nobles’ families.

• Pikachu warned Schiller that Shi'ar nobles were raiding his tavern, so they escaped through the garden while the nobles searched and smashed the place.
• Schiller infiltrated the Shi'ar capital ships and looted them, then he and Pikachu lured the nobles into an ambush and had Toryk swallow their leaders.
• Schiller brought the captured Bird People to Yondu’s base and urged him to ransom them through their families.
• Schiller offered Yondu’s Ravagers a role guarding the Grandmaster’s planned entertainment city in the Milky Way Galaxy, and Yondu accepted.
• Yondu ordered his men to tie up the nobles and contact their Shi'ar Empire informants for ransom.

Schiller, Loki, Pikachu, and Yondu inspected sites in the Milky Way for a new tavern, casino, museum, and Interstellar Council. They began planning the ventures as Galaxy Explorers set out to explore the region, while Schiller considered asking Pamela about supplying fresh fruit.

• Pikachu and Yondu packed their belongings, and Schiller brought them to the Milky Way, where Loki received them with Asgardians.
• Schiller, Loki, and Grandmaster inspected a barren planet near the planned Great Portal, where Grandmaster planned to build an underground casino and the Collector presented plans for a large museum.
• Schiller and Loki agreed to keep the museum’s size and joked about using cheaper materials, while Yondu and Grandmaster traded insults before accepting their future working relationship.
• The group visited the Southern Cross site for the Interstellar Council and discussed the region’s greenery, the mechanization of the great empires, and Supreme Intelligence’s absence.
• After Schiller learned that the Galaxy Explorers had set out, he discussed an Earth-themed tavern with Pikachu and considered selling desserts and fruit, planning to consult Pamela about transporting fresh produce.

Schiller hired Pamela to develop Earth-like tropical fruit on Centaurus, then checked on the Galactic Explorers and found their first expedition in disarray. The Arkham Knight, Polaris, Miles, and Peter investigated a crashed ship, fought hostile robots, and found Dick and his companions unharmed but unaware of the danger.

• Schiller asked Pamela to grow tasty Earth-style fruit on alien planets, and she agreed to inspect Centaurus.
• Schiller read the Galactic Explorers' messages about their mishaps and worried that their expedition had become a disaster.
• The Arkham Knight, Polaris, Miles, and Peter traveled to rescue Dick's team after their ship crashed in a swamp.
• Their spacecraft's autopilot failed amid electromagnetic interference, and the group fought three humanoid robots near an EMP emitter.
• Polaris teleported the group to Dick and his companions, who said they had not encountered any robots.

Peter and the others discovered that a powerful device on Scorpio could interfere with ships and launch focused electromagnetic attacks, then set out to investigate other locations with chaotic magnetic fields. Meanwhile, Schiller, Pikachu, Loki, and the dwarves built a tavern on a barren planet in Centaurus, leaving Schiller to help run it until the explorers returned.

• Peter inspected the Robins’ crashed ship and learned that electromagnetic interference had disabled its autopilot, while their erratic manual landing had taken them outside the attackers’ expected search area.
• Polaris explained that Scorpio’s chaotic magnetic field made it a spaceship graveyard, and Peter and Miles recovered robot bodies and a powerful interference device from the planet.
• Peter discovered that the device could focus its electromagnetic interference on a single target, though the group did not know what it was meant to attack.
• First Generation Spider-Man and Spider-Man 2099 joined the group, which left Scorpio to investigate other planets with chaotic magnetic fields.
• Schiller, Pikachu, and Loki arranged to build a tavern on a barren planet in Centaurus, and Schiller agreed to help staff it until the young explorers returned.
• Loki brought in dwarves who built a large, steampunk-style tavern with a hall, bar, guest rooms, and private reception rooms.

Schiller and his companions prepared the new tavern and discussed plans involving Loki, the Skrull Empire, and curious young pilots being used to expose hidden troublemakers. The Grandmaster and Collector visited, and the Collector praised the Nine Realms and humanity’s art while hoping Earth would survive until he left.

• Pamela planned a backyard garden, while Pikachu stocked the tavern’s barrels with beer and wine and Schiller adjusted the menu for the cold planet.
• Loki visited in Asgardian armor to prepare Schiller for future customers, then left to meet Schiller’s Skrull lookalike and plot against the Skrull Empire.
• Pamela ordered breakfast, and she, Pikachu, and Schiller discussed how young pilots’ curiosity could reveal people causing trouble behind the scenes.
• Schiller, Pamela, and Pikachu discussed Supreme Intelligence’s weakening control over the Kree and the limitations of his approach to electronic life.
• The Grandmaster and Collector visited the tavern, where the Collector praised the Nine Realms’ art and toasted Earth with Schiller.

Construction began on Crux II as Asgard prepared to open the Nine Realms to outsiders, with Loki overseeing visas and the growing political and security challenges. The first workday ended with the site’s foundation complete, while visiting workers were free to explore most of the region but barred from Earth.

• Asgard welcomed engineers from advanced civilizations with a feast, and Thor and Sif discussed patrolling the Nine Realms and giving their descendants a chance to develop their intelligence.
• Loki considered Asgard’s changing political role and began processing visas, rejecting two spies from the Three Great Empires and delaying several unqualified applicants.
• Loki visited the Crux II construction site, where local workers and visitors used advanced machinery to lay the foundation under Symbiote and Jarvis surveillance.
• After the workday, alien workers left in small spacecraft to explore, but they were forbidden from entering Earth.

Schiller served an alien customer at his tavern, who was amazed by Earth’s flavorful food and especially its fruit. Pamela arrived planning to obtain stronger soil from another universe so she could grow fruit despite the planet’s harsh radiation.

• Schiller welcomed a cautious purple-skinned alien, served him beer, steak, vegetables, and fruit, and charged him 22 Universal Credits.
• The alien devoured the fruit platter, bought another serving to take away, and left delighted.
• Schiller learned that fruit was scarce and often restricted by class in many alien civilizations, explaining the customer’s excitement.
• Pamela told Schiller that Earth soil could not support seeds under the local radiation and that she planned to bring soil from Main Universe Gotham.
• Pamela said that if the Gotham soil failed, she would seek ancient silt from beneath Atlantis in Batwoman’s universe, while Schiller worried the resulting fruit might be unsafe for aliens.

Schiller’s fruit platters drew crowds of alien workers to his tavern, leaving him overwhelmed until Pikachu brought Mephisto to help with the night shift. Mephisto uncovered signs that several workers had been infiltrated or manipulated, and promised Schiller he would deal with the hidden threat.

• Schiller sold fruit platters to a long line of aliens and learned that fresh, varied Earth fruit was rare and expensive across the galaxy.
• After the fruit sold quickly, Schiller agreed to return to Gotham with Pamela’s suggestion to obtain soil and test whether Earth plants could grow on the alien planet.
• Schiller served more alien customers new fruits and coconut water, and the crowds kept the tavern busy until midnight.
• Schiller demanded that Pikachu hire help, and Pikachu returned with Mephisto, who took the night shift and nearly turned the tavern into a cult gathering.
• Mephisto told Schiller that a blue-skinned worker was a Mechanical Bionic Person, a red-skinned worker appeared brainwashed, and the shift manager was hiding a larger scheme.
• Mephisto promised Schiller he would investigate and handle the infiltrators.

Johnny and Danny caught an alien intruder at the construction site, but Danny’s Ghost Rider fire severely damaged the alien’s soul. Schiller brought the evidence and the unconscious alien back to the tavern, where he and Pamela buried the body in a new underground garden before Schiller received an urgent call about a spaceship crash.

• Johnny and Danny searched the construction site overnight and spotted a suspicious alien hiding something beside a crack in the rock.
• Johnny found a black electromagnetic interference device while Danny pursued the alien, who fired a laser gun at him.
• Danny used Ghost Rider fire on the alien, accidentally burning away more than half of his soul, and the brothers brought him and the device to Schiller.
• Schiller took Johnny and Danny back to the tavern, where he and Pamela arranged an underground experimental garden and buried the alien beneath UV lamps.
• After the cellar was equipped with an air purifier and Pamela began working there, Schiller received a call about a spaceship that had crashed into an asteroid.

Schiller uncovered a plot to provoke hostility between humans and aliens, while Nick and Loki exposed a widespread spy network among the workers and sealed the planet to investigate. After the lockdown ended, Loki worried that the infiltration made opening the Nine Realms unsafe and asked Schiller how the investigation had gone.

• Schiller discovered that nanobots had damaged an alien's brain and caused a deliberate crash intended to inflame human-alien tensions.
• Schiller brought the aliens' bodies to Pamela, then called Loki and agreed that they should turn the rumors of disappearances against the conspirators.
• Nick scolded the workers and announced that people had gone missing, then news spread that a colleague had been arrested near Asgard while trying to sneak inside.
• After the espionage charge was confirmed, Nick sealed off the planet, and workers began reporting one another until investigators uncovered numerous spies, clones, and brainwashed victims.
• Nick lifted the lockdown after several days, and Loki worried that the infiltration made opening the Nine Realms dangerous.
• Schiller arrived the next morning, and Loki asked him how it had gone.

Schiller and Loki established an Asgardian border checkpoint to catch alien spies, with Pride screening arrivals and Greed disposing of confirmed impostors. At Schiller’s tavern, Polaris reflected on Havok’s proposal and decided she could not fairly ask him to wait for her.

• Schiller told Loki that Pamela’s crops needed soil from Gotham and fertilizer made from alien corpses, and they planned a checkpoint to identify infiltrators.
• The Asgardians approved a checkpoint at the dimensional entrance, where Pride used his Psychoanalytic Method to flag suspicious arrivals and Greed handled confirmed spies.
• Pride’s screening reached 100% accuracy for those he marked within two days, though the group could not know whether any spies had escaped detection.
• Peter, Polaris, and their companions visited Schiller’s tavern and ordered food and beer.
• Polaris discussed Batman and Arkham Knight’s complicated history with Schiller, then admitted she did not want Havok to wait forever while she remained unable to return to a home of her own.

Peter identified the electromagnetic interference device as a likely weapon against humanity’s fixed portals, while Schiller ordered teams to retreat and began preparing them for combat. Schiller then sent Loki to strike the Skrull Empire, and Loki destroyed its hatchery and the planet holding it.

• Peter explained that the device could interfere with energy-based constructs and suspected it was designed to disrupt humanity’s portals.
• Schiller concluded that the Skrull Empire was likely behind the devices and told injured teams to withdraw while updating the Galactic Hitchhiker's Guide with combat advice.
• Schiller told Loki to make his move against the Skrull Empire.
• Loki hid inside a livestock beast, entered a Skrull slaughterhouse, and infiltrated the hatchery.
• Loki unleashed the power stored in Mjolnir, destroying the planet and the Skrull hatchery with it.

After Loki was arrested for destroying a Skrull hatchery, Schiller and his companions discussed how Loki’s deliberate surrender had trapped the Skrulls in a legal and political dilemma. Star-Lord delivered captured Skrull weapons to Centaurus, and the chapter ended as Strange rushed into the tavern calling for Schiller.

• Polaris asked Schiller why Loki had stayed behind after destroying the Skrull hatchery, and Schiller explained that Loki intended to delay the Skrulls with a trial.
• Peter and Polaris considered the Skrulls’ possible responses, while Schiller warned that they would keep attacking the portals and the group still had to find the disruptors.
• Star-Lord brought a freighter carrying weapons taken from a Skrull base and learned that Yondu and the Ravagers had come to Centaurus.
• Tim accused Schiller of orchestrating Loki’s attack and asked who had spread the rumor linking Loki with the Sorcerer Supreme.
• Strange burst into the tavern and shouted for Schiller.

Schiller discussed the fallout from a tabloid rumor linking him and Strange while teams gathered alien devices at the tavern. Reed arrived with a plan for a safer galactic transit network, but Schiller noticed one of its fixed passage points was on Earth.

• Strange confronted Schiller over a tabloid article implying a relationship between them, and Schiller explained its political purpose and promised to help if Thor challenged Strange.
• The Robins brought injured Atlantis sisters to the tavern, where Schiller treated them with healing serum while teams continued collecting identical black boxes.
• Reed dismissed the boxes as irrelevant to his portals and explained his plan to route travel through the antimatter universe using stable, fixed singularities.
• Schiller examined Reed's proposed Milky Way transit network and discovered that one planned singularity was located on Earth.

Schiller discussed Reed and Doom’s plan to use Antimatter Universe transmission technology to relocate the Solar System, while Stark warned that the process raised serious safety and ethical concerns. Stark explained that souls could not be stored in human-made servers, but Schiller still believed the project would likely proceed, and he promised to question Reed.

• Schiller considered how Earth and the rest of the Solar System would need to move to make way for the Milky Way Galaxy’s expressway.
• Stark warned Schiller that Reed and Doom’s transmission technology was dangerous and could turn human beings into information, raising the possibility of catastrophic misuse.
• Stark explained that souls could travel through natural dimensions such as the Antimatter Universe but could not be stored in human-built servers; Mephisto clarified that Soul Crystals acted as beacons to souls in the Hell Dimension.
• Schiller and Stark agreed that Reed’s plan would probably be approved despite Stark’s concerns, since humanity had little time to take advantage of the Three Great Empires’ weakness.
• Schiller promised Stark he would question Reed about the ethical problems, while Stark remained angry that Schiller had not challenged him sooner.

Schiller questioned Reed about the risks and meaning of his passage technology, and Reed explained how cosmic knowledge led from understanding to creation. Reed then revealed that he had observed Schiller compiling the universe and had used the process to bring Pikachu into reality, leaving Schiller to realize Reed had detected and outpaced Superego.

• Schiller asked Reed whether others could steal his passage technology, and Reed explained that it was mathematical knowledge rather than a tangible blueprint.
• Reed described Creator Knowledge as a path from understanding the universe through observation and study to applying cosmic construction.
• Reed said he, Stark, and Doom were the only ones pursuing the later stages, while the Supreme Intelligence had mistaken a key for the treasure.
• Reed revealed that he had witnessed Schiller compiling the universe in low Earth orbit when Schiller first arrived.
• Reed explained that he had completed Schiller's compilation by turning his thoughts about a Poké Ball and Pikachu into reality.
• Schiller realized Reed had likely detected Superego's compilation and used its remaining power before Superego could keep up with Reed's decryption.