Chapter Summaries

Luke presented Hebron’s future technology and resource-sharing plans to the world’s magnates, then revealed the Data Dimension and dangerous materials from other realms to Tony, Banner, and Norman. Tony wanted to buy Uru metal with New Currency, but Luke’s price of one thousand per gram stunned him.

• Luke showed the magnates footage of the Chitauri, Asgard, and the Hell Dimension, then offered technology licenses and a share of a resource-funded equipment order.
• Luke assigned Nick responsibility for evaluating and distributing resources, while Norman Osborn questioned what the deal required.
• Tony and Dr. Banner asked Luke about buying materials with their New Currency, and Luke explained the Data Dimension’s support for researchers and technologists.
• Luke led Tony, Dr. Banner, and Norman into a warehouse, where he showed them Mephisto’s dangerous Hell Series armor and explained its risks.
• Tony asked to buy Uru metal, but Luke quoted a price of one thousand New Currency per gram, freezing Tony’s smile.

Luke arranged for S.H.I.E.L.D. to coordinate a trade in which companies exchanged technology and data for resources and licenses through the Data Dimension. As Tony developed a new alloy and Maximus’s purge forced Crystal to flee Attilan, Crystal and Lockjaw ended up in a villa where a man in black declared teleportation forbidden.

• Luke gave Nick access to material information in the Data Dimension and offered companies a way to trade technology and data for resources.
• After several days of negotiations, Norman and the other participants agreed to exchange their companies’ technology and data for resource quotas and technology licenses.
• Tony created a new alloy, uploaded it to the Data Dimension, and excitedly discussed using it for new armor while Dr. Banner urged him to rest.
• After Maximus seized control of Attilan and began a purge, Crystal escaped with Lockjaw’s help.
• Lockjaw teleported Crystal into a villa, where a strange force blocked his ability and a man in black announced that teleportation was forbidden.

Luke stopped Crystal and Lockjaw after their teleportation went awry, then handed them over to S.H.I.E.L.D. as Attilan's new ruler, Maximus, planned to pursue the rebels and use the conflict to launch a war against humanity. The chapter revealed that Maximus had strengthened and stabilized his psychic abilities through a strange Dimensional World.

• Luke explained that he had suppressed Lockjaw's teleportation with Data Dimension technology, and Crystal said she and Lockjaw had been fleeing a bloody rebellion in Attilan.
• Luke refused to let Crystal and Lockjaw leave, restricted Lockjaw's abilities with a metal ring, and received S.H.I.E.L.D. agents led by Phil Coulson.
• On the moon, Maximus ordered Mordis to pursue the rebels on Midgard and demanded that humans either kill Black Bolt or return him, threatening war if they refused.
• Maximus reflected on Inhuman Awakening and his own psychic powers, which he had enhanced and stabilized with a Mental Crystal gained through a strange Dimensional World.

Maximus sought to conquer Earth and use its knowledge and resources, while Crystal asked Nick for help finding Black Bolt, Medusa, and their allies. Nick learned that Maximus had sent his own people to hunt them, and the chapter ended as one of Maximus’s agents used plants to spy on Crystal’s landing site.

• Maximus decided to pursue control of the Mystical Dimension’s resources and target humanity after Black Bolt rejected his plan to invade Earth.
• Crystal told Nick that Maximus had overthrown Black Bolt and sought to conquer Earth, and Nick showed her that S.H.I.E.L.D. had located Black Bolt and Medusa.
• Crystal identified Orlan and Mordis as Maximus’s subordinates, while Nick revealed that Maximus had asked Earth’s authorities to capture the supposed rebels.
• Nick told Crystal that his superiors were now under his side’s control, assuring her that Earth would not simply accept Maximus’s offer.
• A spatial-sensing agent led a green-marked man to Crystal’s landing site, where the man used plants to observe the villa.

Luke used the Data Sandbox to repeatedly kill and study two Inhumans who had come seeking Crystal, extracting a partial Inhuman Gene Map. Meanwhile, S.H.I.E.L.D., the Inhumans, and Maximus’s agents faced off on an island until Crystal reunited with Medusa.

• Rudd detected two Inhumans searching Luke’s villa and struck them with an Azure Light Cluster, while Luke used the Data Sandbox to trap them in repeated lethal scenarios.
• Jay repeatedly relived the encounter, dying in different ways as the sandbox analyzed his and his companion’s abilities and genes.
• The Data Dimension completed its analysis and stored a Partial Inhuman Gene Map in the Attilan File Repository.
• On an island, Phil Coulson confronted Black Bolt and Medusa’s group alongside Orlan’s agents, S.H.I.E.L.D. squads, and Mechanical Soldiers.
• Crystal emerged with Phil and ran to Medusa, easing the Inhumans’ tension while Orlan’s group grew grim.

Coulson formed a limited alliance with Black Bolt’s group as S.H.I.E.L.D. detained Maximus’s followers, and an Inhuman city appeared on the moon. Norman Osborn then presented Luke and Nick with Oscorp’s new equipment, ending with the unveiling of a necklace forged from a Devil’s Soul Crystal.

• Coulson reported his assessment of Black Bolt and his followers to Nick Fury, then agreed to a limited Friendly Alliance with Black Bolt through Medusa.
• Lockjaw took Black Bolt and the others away while S.H.I.E.L.D. detained Orlan and the other captives, and a city appeared on the far side of the moon.
• Norman welcomed Luke and Nick to Osborn Industries and led them into a laboratory to show them Oscorp’s finished products.
• Norman demonstrated the Matador Bracer, which enhanced strength and protected its wearer from injury, and explained that attacking red boosted its power further.
• Norman opened a box to reveal the Spirit Necklace, whose core had been forged from a Devil’s Soul Crystal.

Norman presented S.H.I.E.L.D. with Osborn Industries’ supernatural equipment, including a Holy Light Bracelet, and proposed sending employees to train at Hebron. Luke accepted and expanded the training offer to all invited companies, while Nick arranged testing for the equipment.

• Norman explained that the Spirit Necklace used a Devil’s Soul Crystal to strengthen mental influence and could form a contract to summon a creature.
• Norman unveiled the Holy Light Bracelet, which could heal injuries, restore vitality, reduce fatigue, and enhance supernatural power, but was difficult to mass-produce.
• Norman asked Luke for more Hebron staff, and Luke refused because Hebron’s laboratories were already short-handed.
• Norman proposed paying for Osborn employees to train at Hebron, and Luke agreed to extend the opportunity to all invited enterprises.
• Nick asked whether the other two pieces of equipment could be mass-produced, then arranged for S.H.I.E.L.D. to begin testing and collect the results.

Luke explained to Nick that the Nine Realms were nearing a conflict after Malekith returned and allied with hostile realms, while their equipment business could profit from the turmoil. He left Nick facing the prospect that Midgard might become a battlefield and that S.H.I.E.L.D. could sell equipment to the opposing forces.

• Nick and Luke discussed Osborn's successful equipment tests, the future market for supernatural arms, and the difficulty of selling to customers who relied on looting.
• Luke told Nick that unrest across the Nine Realms had intensified and that Odin had discovered Malekith's return to Svartalfheim.
• Luke explained that Asgard did not need their equipment and suggested that other realms' rebels could become customers, prompting Nick to question the risks of angering Odin.
• Luke revealed that Malekith had allied with the rulers of Muspelheim and Jotunheim against Asgard, while most other realms remained undecided.
• Nick learned that Midgard had been excluded from recruitment because its people seemed too weak to matter, and Luke said his public technology license had been unrelated to the conflict.

Nick prepared for the possibility that the Dark Elf conflict would reach Midgard, while Tony Stark and Bruce Banner successfully tested Emerald Liquid on Tony. The transformation gave Tony control over networks and metal, but he became troubled by how closely his new abilities resembled Luke’s technology.

• Nick worried that Asgard’s struggle with the Dark Elf Alliance could bring war to Midgard, so he decided to borrow money and prioritize strengthening S.H.I.E.L.D. with supernatural equipment.
• Tony Stark and Bruce Banner completed the Emerald Liquid and reviewed the procedure, but Tony chose to test it on himself rather than consult Luke first.
• Tony endured the first two injections, then received the final dose after J.A.R.V.I.S. stabilized his condition with nutrient solution and Luke’s Longevity Serum.
• Tony gained the ability to enter computer networks, command nearby computing power, and control metal to build and modify Mark Armor.
• Bruce Banner congratulated Tony on the successful experiment, but Tony noticed that his abilities closely resembled Luke’s technology and asked whether Banner saw anything wrong.

Tony Stark developed a serum that combined the Mechanical Virus with the Extremis Virus, giving him a controllable ability to transform materials into technology. He began testing the serum on the Nurman Brothers, whose manufacturing ability could establish a new profession called Mechanic.

• Tony compared his ability to Luke's Programmable Material Technology, while Dr. Banner explained that the serum produced a different, potentially unique power.
• Tony named the serum the Mechanical Serum and planned to reduce its cost so it could cure and improve the abilities of Mechanical Virus infectees.
• At a cocktail party, Tony revealed his Mark Armor transformation and impressed Nick and the other guests with his new technology.
• Nick brought the Nurman Brothers to Stark Tower for testing, and Tony had J.A.R.V.I.S. inject them with the serum.
• Tony explained that the brothers would gain Manufacturing Ability, which could let people use their knowledge or downloaded blueprints to make tools and weapons from nearby materials.

Tony tested the Mechanical Serum on the Nurman Brothers, restoring their ordinary bodies while letting them switch back to their Mutate forms. Jason then used a helmet to access the Data Dimension and received technical blueprints, leaving Nick eager to develop his manufacturing ability.

• The Nurman Brothers successfully fused with the Mechanical Serum, and Jason confirmed he could switch between his normal body and Mutate form.
• Jason described sensing a connection to the Data Dimension, which Tony identified as a space Luke had created and developed using the Cosmic Cube.
• Tony had Jason wear a perception helmet, through which Jason saw a data panel and received blueprints for an Energy Pulse device.
• At Tony's urging, Jason used his Mechanical Mastery to assemble an Energy Pulse Gauntlet from metal ingots.
• Tony judged the gauntlet functional but crude and advised Nick to have Jason train and study, while explaining that the Data Dimension—not the helmet—had supplied the technology.

Tony told Nick that ordinary people could not access the Data Dimension without a special access module, while Mutates infected with the Mechanical Virus could. He confirmed his serum could replace the virus, and Nick left the production costs and material negotiations to Luke as he worried about S.H.I.E.L.D.'s debts and the future management of its Mutates.

• Nick asked Tony whether anyone wearing the helmet could connect to the Data Dimension, and Tony said ordinary people lacked the access module while Mechanical Virus-infected Mutates had permission.
• Tony revealed that he had explored S.H.I.E.L.D.'s Database and learned about the Centipede Project, prompting Nick to wonder how he had uncovered the secret.
• Tony explained that data intrusion threatened existing security and said he planned to move J.A.R.V.I.S. into the Data Dimension, where Luke had already relocated Hebron's real systems.
• Nick asked whether Tony's serum could replace the Mechanical Virus, and Tony confirmed it could at a cost of about $100,000 per dose plus special Dimensional Materials.
• Nick sent Tony to discuss lowering costs with Luke and worried that Mephisto's expanding debt-collection operation might eventually target him.

Nick brokered employment contracts between a dozen aging financial magnates and the Energy Bank, whose headquarters were in the Data Dimension. After the contracts were signed, Blaze paid Nick, and Master Mage Wang left to report to the Sorcerer Supreme.

• Nick confirmed that the elderly magnates understood the agreement and gave them a final chance to withdraw before signing.
• One magnate asked for more Longevity Serum, but Nick explained that the allocation quotas could not change until the next Longevity Conference.
• Johnny Blaze warned the magnates that signing would bind their souls, while Master Mage Wang clarified that they would work for the Energy Bank rather than become Mephisto’s servants.
• Nick interrupted Blaze and Master Mage Wang’s argument, and the magnates signed their contracts before the three witnesses.
• Blaze gave Nick a leather pouch as a brokerage fee, and Master Mage Wang opened a portal and left to report to the Sorcerer Supreme.

Nick reflected on the bargain with the elderly contractors as their souls burned and their youth returned, then sent Coulson to an African conference in his place. Meanwhile, Luke expanded the Data Dimension into a platform that grew stronger from its users’ data and contributions.

• Nick warned the old men that their contract’s promised lifespan might not come as they expected and that their souls had been marked by powerful beings.
• The contract signers burned in pale-white flames, then rose restored to youth and vitality.
• Nick told Agent Phil Coulson that the deal had been successful, then assigned him to attend an upcoming conference in Africa.
• Luke worked on the Data Dimension, shaping it into an open platform that offered users tools and services in exchange for contributions that strengthened it.
• Luke inspected the server Stark had created for his data but chose not to breach its protections.

S.H.I.E.L.D. discussed Doctor Otto’s emergence as a Mutate and his connection to the Data Dimension, whose technology could greatly empower Mutates and give inventors control over how others used their work. Nick decided they could not allow Otto to openly recruit more Mutates, though the meeting left the wider consequences of the Data Dimension unresolved.

• Nick asked whether Doctor Otto was a Mutate or an experimental monster, and Stark said Otto had admitted he was a Mutate.
• Stark and Dr. Banner explained that Otto’s intelligence and Data Dimension access could make him and the Mutates he recruited far more dangerous.
• Agent Hill and Nick told Captain America that the Data Dimension could let researchers verify technology without real-world equipment and implant technical knowledge into others.
• Tony explained that inventors could restrict or revoke authorization to use technology they uploaded to the Data Dimension.
• Nick argued that the new rules posed dangers, while Tony defended them as a change that could improve researchers’ standing.
• Nick declared that S.H.I.E.L.D. could not let Doctor Otto openly recruit more Mutates.

Norman Osborn investigated S.H.I.E.L.D.’s interest in the Mutates and sent them job invitations, drawing attention to Osborn Industries. At a Hydra meeting, Malick’s faction clashed with Pierce, Strucker, and Whitehall over Hydra’s faith and the Data Dimension before a mysterious woman appeared as Malick’s supposed Messenger of God.

• Norman connected S.H.I.E.L.D., Doctor Otto, and Stark through their interest in the Mutates, then decided Osborn Industries should recruit them.
• Norman sent invitations to several Mutates, bringing Osborn Industries into the competition for their talent.
• Madame Viper confronted Malick at a Hydra meeting over his mockery of her weakened position.
• Pierce, Strucker, and Whitehall rejected Malick’s devotion to Hive and argued that Hydra should pursue power in the Data Dimension instead.
• Malick warned the other Hydra Heads that the Malick Family funded much of their organizations, but a mysterious woman interrupted him.
• Malick introduced the woman as the Messenger of God, prompting Pierce and the others to suspect she had controlled him.

Malick’s attempt to force Hydra leaders to welcome Hive back collapsed when Baron Strucker’s forces disrupted the meeting. The Emissary of the God displayed her ability to dominate Inhumans and sent Strucker to Hive’s planet, leaving Pierce and the others facing her power.

• The Emissary of the God attacked Pierce and the other Hydra leaders with parasitic creatures, but they defended themselves and discovered their communications had been cut off.
• Malick’s alarm failed to summon his guards, and Baron Strucker revealed that the Maximoff Siblings had captured the villa’s defenders and turned them against each other.
• Pierce recognized the Emissary’s creatures as parasites and concluded that Hive intended to control Hydra, while Strucker ordered the Maximoff Siblings to capture her.
• The Emissary evaded the Maximoff Siblings, incapacitated Whitehall by placing Parasitic Seed inside him, and declared that Hive ruled the Inhumans.
• The Emissary vanished Baron Strucker to Hive’s planet, then turned her attention toward Pierce.

Madame Viper, Pierce, and Pietro escaped as the Robe Woman captured Whitehall and prepared for the return of the Hydra-worshiped god. After the Data Dimension showed Luke what happened, he learned the god was an ancient Inhuman and began developing technology to suppress Inhuman abilities.

• Madame Viper used Black Magic to flee, and Pierce fled in his Energy Suit as Pietro carried Wanda out of the Secret Room.
• The Robe Woman told Malick to prepare for the god's arrival and said the person she had sent would serve as an excellent vessel.
• Luke used the Data Dimension to reconstruct Baron Strucker's disappearance and inspect the subsequent scene through Whitehall.
• Luke learned that Malick's family sought to bring back its god and command the other Hydra factions, while the Robe Woman could use multiple Inhuman abilities.
• Luke reviewed Inhuman research data and began designing an Inhuman countermeasure that could make Inhuman genes dormant.

The Octopus Man learned about Attilan’s split and asked Malick to arrange a meeting with Black Bolt. At Hebron Tower, Luke showed Nick and Pierce a device called the Reversal Crystal, developed as a potential weapon against the Inhumans.

• The Octopus Man watched accelerated news and learned that Black Bolt had left Attilan with followers and Terrigen Crystals after agreeing to Maximus’s terms.
• Black Bolt and Medusa joined the Avengers, while their followers received a Midgard settlement and S.H.I.E.L.D. offered support in exchange for cooperation and access to Attilan technology.
• The Octopus Man pointed to Black Bolt in a photograph and told Malick he wanted to meet him; Malick promised to arrange it despite the pressure on his family from Pierce and others.
• Nick arrived at Hebron Tower with Pierce, who asked Luke whether Hebron could develop a weapon for use against the Inhumans.
• Luke led Nick and Pierce to the laboratory and presented a crystalline device called the Reversal Crystal.

Luke explained how the Reversal Crystal could suppress Inhuman abilities and described ways S.H.I.E.L.D. could deploy it. Nick and Pierce agreed to buy it, while Pierce began suspecting Nick had kept New Currency profits from Hydra.

• Luke explained that the Reversal Crystal could make Inhuman genes dormant and suppress their abilities within its range.
• Luke outlined ways to use the crystal in restraints, weapons, bullets, artificial rain, and wide-area energy shockwaves.
• Nick asked about the cost, and Luke offered five hundred grams of Reversal Crystal for one New Currency.
• Nick rushed to secure the deal, while Pierce judged the price reasonable and realized Nick might have excluded Hydra from New Currency profits.
• Nick noticed Pierce's strange look but set aside his unease to finalize the order with Luke.