Chapter Summaries

Henry watched the Mutant battle unfold on television and learned that a young Mutant had replaced Magneto in operating Henry’s conversion device. Selene explained the choice while Henry and Katharine Hepburn bantered, leaving Henry still curious about the girl’s abilities and how the Brotherhood had found her.

• Henry watched Coast Guard boats approach Liberty Island, where water-controlling Mutants overturned them and kept the U.S. military at bay.
• Henry recognized the conversion device on the Statue of Liberty’s torch and wondered why an unfamiliar young girl was operating it instead of Magneto.
• Selene explained that the girl could generate the magnetic field needed to activate the device, allowing Magneto to fight the X-Men and defend against military missiles.
• Henry asked how the Brotherhood had identified the girl, but Selene distracted Katharine Hepburn by offering a tarot reading.
• Katharine asked Selene to divine Henry’s luck with women, and Selene teased him before Katharine rebuked Henry for swearing.

After the X-Men defeated Magneto and destroyed the Mutant Conversion Device, Henry learned that Selene had cared little about the Brotherhood’s defeat. The next morning, police arrived to question Henry about the attack, and he agreed to go to the station while Selene stayed with Katharine Hepburn.

• Wolverine destroyed the Mutant Conversion Device, and the X-Men defeated Magneto as the Brotherhood of Mutants fled.
• Magneto sent a retreat signal before the U.S. military began making arrests and rescuing its people.
• Henry asked Selene whether she was worried about the Brotherhood’s defeat, and she said she did not care if they all died.
• Chief Inspector George Stacy arrived at Henry’s home with officers to bring him in for questioning about the Liberty Island attack.
• Katharine Hepburn vouched for Henry’s alibi, and Henry agreed to make a statement while Selene stayed to look after her.

Henry Brown was cleared at the police station after lawyers from Oscorp, Catherine Hepburn, and Stark Industries intervened on his behalf. Norman Osborn offered Henry a lucrative job, but Henry declined, leaving their uneasy relationship unresolved.

• George Stacy brought Henry Brown to the police station, where a federal prosecutor prepared to seek his detention.
• Lawyers representing Oscorp, Catherine Hepburn, and Stark Industries arrived, and the elderly Stark lawyer arranged for Oscorp's counsel to handle Henry's release formalities.
• The Stark lawyer recognized Norman Osborn waiting in a luxury car and asked Oscorp's lawyer to give him his regards before leaving.
• Norman Osborn offered Henry a ten-million-dollar annual salary and other benefits in exchange for his work.
• Henry declined the offer, and Norman said it would remain open and offered him a ride home, which Henry refused.

After the United Nations summit crisis, Henry Brown returned to his routine and investigated the boy who had reported him by building an autonomous spy machine named Sparrow. He traveled to Hungary to replace Little Duck I’s battery and seek advice from Alexei Shostakov.

• Norman Osborn’s intervention discouraged others from harassing Henry, while Tony Stark’s lawyer helped secure Henry’s release from the police station.
• Selene left after seven days, Maria Thomson returned, and Henry learned that Magneto had been imprisoned, the X-Men had been commended, and Senator Kelly had shifted his stance on Mutant rights.
• Henry decided to investigate the boy who had reported him and built Sparrow, an autonomous spy machine, to gather intelligence.
• Henry traveled to Hungary with Sparrow to replace Little Duck I’s battery and consult Alexei Shostakov.
• Alexei asked Henry to extend Little Duck I’s battery life, but Henry warned that a more powerful power source could make it dangerously explosive.

Henry showed Alexei the Sparrow Spy Drone, an upgraded autonomous model that worked with Little Duck to improve reconnaissance and environmental monitoring. Alexei received control of a set of Sparrows, while Henry remained wary of giving him the combat suit he wanted.

• Henry revealed Sparrow and asked Alexei to assess its design and functions.
• Alexei used temporary control access to inspect Sparrow, and Henry brought two more drones online to demonstrate their coordinated holographic imaging and reconnaissance.
• Alexei discussed potential uses for Sparrow as Henry explained that he wanted to monitor children and uncover whoever might be directing them.
• Alexei argued against Henry’s surveillance plan, then asked for Sparrows or an upgrade to Little Duck and received control authority.
• Alexei asked to rename the drones and pressed Henry about his unfinished combat suit, but Henry refused because Alexei could use it to approach NATO headquarters.

Henry shared designs for three powered armors with Alexei, who questioned whether they were meant for war. Alexei explained why the Red Room was difficult to locate, then teased Henry about his alien origins and bragged about his relationship with Melina.

• Henry gave Alexei designs for three animal-shaped powered armors, and Alexei suggested making a dinosaur model instead.
• Alexei recognized the armors as coordinated long-range, fire-support, and assault units, while Henry kept his plans for training troops and preparing for a future battle to himself.
• Alexei named the three spy machines Melina, Natasha, and Yelena, after his wife and daughters.
• Henry asked why Alexei had not found the Red Room, and Alexei explained that the Americans repeatedly tried to destroy it, leaving it deeply hidden and difficult to investigate.
• Alexei asked Henry why the Americans hated the Red Room and speculated about Henry's alien origins, then made lewd jokes and boasted that Melina loved him.

Henry used the Sparrow Spy Drone to follow the troublesome child and discovered that Putz lived in the sewers with Skye. After the two children shared a meager meal and talked about life aboveground, a larger group of children tore apart their shelter and dragged them away.

• Henry sent the Sparrow Spy Drone to watch the child, who entered the sewers and sought payment from Old Willy.
• Old Willy refused to pay Putz and kicked him away when he tried to stop him from leaving.
• Putz reunited with Skye, who shared a small piece of bread and urged him to stop watching the person on East 49th Street.
• Putz and Skye slept together for warmth and talked about finding food and Putz's former foster family.
• The next morning, a larger group of children destroyed their shelter and dragged Putz and Skye away.

Putz and Skye were confronted by sewer children over unpaid debts and a stolen loaf of bread, but the group really wanted Skye’s hidden treasure. After they seized her pink beaded hair tie, Putz recognized it as the only keepsake from the foster family that had cared for him.

• A child leading the group demanded payment from Putz for borrowed workers, while Putz blamed Lame Willie for not paying him.
• The group accused Skye of taking a child’s marked bread, and Skye mocked them and refused to repay it.
• The leader demanded Skye’s treasure to settle the dispute, and the children attacked Putz and Skye when she refused.
• The children searched Skye and found a pink elastic hair tie with plastic beads, then dismissed it as worthless.
• Putz recognized the hair tie as the gift he had given Skye and remembered the Brodis family, his only kind foster parents.

After a beating left Skye badly injured and unable to move, the Tinkerer and Mephisto each offered her a way to survive. Skye faced a choice between the Tinkerer's rescue and Mephisto's promise of a protected second life.

• The boys who had beaten Skye and Putz left, and Putz helped Skye sit against a wall while she held on to her treasured hair tie.
• Putz went to look for work, leaving Skye to seek church relief supplies, but she was too injured to stand and feared she would die.
• The Tinkerer found Skye and offered to save her for free, while warning that her internal bleeding was getting worse.
• Mephisto appeared and offered Skye a second life under his protection in exchange for her soul after death.
• Skye asked Mephisto whether he wanted her soul, and he explained the terms of his offer.

Henry Brown watched Skye die after she rejected Mephisto’s offer, then destroyed the demon’s avatar and took its coin. When Putz returned and accused Henry of killing Skye, Henry denied it and offered to take him along so he could say goodbye.

• Skye wished for food, family, and love as she died, while the Tinkerer watched her heartbeat fail.
• Mephisto tried to tempt the Tinkerer into a deal, but the Tinkerer smashed its avatar and stole its coin.
• Mephisto realized the coin had been taken and angrily chewed on souls in Hell.
• Henry Brown regretted intervening and stood uncertainly beside Skye’s body until Putz returned.
• Putz accused Henry of killing Skye and stabbed at him, but the knife could not pierce Henry.
• Henry denied killing Skye and asked Putz whether he would come with him; Putz agreed.

Henry took Putz and Skye’s body from New York to a secluded hillside in Joshua Tree National Park, where he and Putz buried her. After Henry told Putz about Skye’s final wish, Putz said goodbye and helped cover her grave.

• Henry rejected leaving Skye’s body in the sewers or taking it to Cannibal Street and carried her out of New York with Putz.
• Henry brought Putz and Skye to a secluded spot in Joshua Tree National Park and dug a grave with him.
• Henry lowered Skye into the grave and told Putz he had regretted not saving her when he had the chance.
• Henry told Putz that Skye had wished for a home and wanted him to stay by her side.
• Putz cried, scattered the first shovelful of dirt over Skye, and helped Henry fill in the grave.

Henry buried Skye, then took the troublesome Black girl with him rather than leave her in the sewers. At Katharine Hepburn’s home, he discovered the child was a girl and ordered BB to bathe her, leaving the household stunned by the chaos.

• Henry made a cross-shaped marker for Skye’s grave after a child asked how to find it later.
• Henry offered the Black girl a chance to come with him, but she refused and asked to be returned to the sewers.
• Henry carried the struggling girl back to Katharine Hepburn’s home in New York and insisted that she bathe.
• Henry realized the child was a girl and sent BB into the bathroom in Kitty Bath Mode.
• The girl tried to escape BB’s rough bath, while Katharine asked Henry what was happening.

Henry brought the girl from the New York Sewer World home, and Katharine Hepburn agreed that she could stay with them rather than be sent to a foster family. The girl revealed that her name was Mary Sue Poots but asked to be called Skye, leaving Henry wondering whether she was the future Quake.

• Henry told Katharine Hepburn that the girl had lived in the New York Sewer World and had lost her friend in an accident.
• The girl rejected foster care and insisted she would rather return to the streets, but Katharine Hepburn decided she could stay in the house.
• Katharine Hepburn asked the girl her name, and she introduced herself as Mary Sue Poots.
• After Henry laughed at her name, the girl explained that the orphanage had given it to her and asked them to call her Skye in memory of her friend.
• Henry wondered whether Skye was Quake.

Henry sent Skye Potts to public school under a new identity, but she complained that school was pointless and claimed she already knew everything. He challenged her with math and physics questions, then Gwen Stacy arrived to tutor her and help her catch up on missed schoolwork.

• Henry gave Skye a new identity as Skye Potts and enrolled her in public school.
• Skye complained to Henry that school was full of idiots and that she already knew everything.
• Henry tested Skye with a question about the Sun’s mass and a perfect-square problem, which she could not answer.
• Henry argued that learning could prepare Skye to seize future opportunities, while she mocked him for lazing on the couch.
• Gwen Stacy arrived, and Henry told Skye to study with her so she could catch up on schoolwork.

Gwen asked Henry to teach her to drive, while Skye insisted she wanted lessons too. Gwen took Skye to her workshop-like bedroom to study, where Skye continued teaching herself electronics and hacking in an effort to defeat Henry’s tracking system.

• Gwen asked Henry to teach her to drive on Sunday, and Henry said he would do so only if George called to give permission.
• Skye demanded driving lessons too, but Henry told her she had to wait until she was sixteen and mocked her for asking.
• Gwen stopped Skye from attacking Henry and led her into her bedroom to study.
• Skye’s bedroom was filled with salvaged electronic parts, engineering books, and a homemade computer that she used to learn programming and hacking.
• Skye had turned to electronics after Henry repeatedly tracked her down when she tried to run away, and she aimed to hack BB’s system to stop him receiving her location.

Gwen talked Skye into studying language arts by explaining how literary analysis could help her understand and respond to Henry’s sophisticated words. The lesson began with Henry’s book, which convinced Skye to stop resisting.

• Skye asked Gwen whether she had questioned George about the tracker, and Gwen said George had wanted Henry to give her trackers too.
• Gwen reminded Skye that living in Henry’s home was safer than returning to the streets, and that Skye’s complaints did not mean she was being abused.
• Gwen changed the subject to Skye’s lesson after Skye complained about studying language arts.
• Gwen explained that language arts involved understanding meaning, analysis, and rhetorical tricks, then showed Skye Henry’s book, Love from a Different Culture.
• Skye agreed to study language arts after Gwen warned that Henry might use his polished language to belittle her without her realizing it.

Henry taught Gwen how to drive in the NYPD parking lot, then accompanied her onto the road. During the drive, Gwen asked why he had adopted Skye, and Henry explained how he had found her and decided to take her in.

• George Stacy inspected Henry’s Cadillac and left Henry and Gwen to practice in the NYPD parking lot.
• Henry taught Gwen driving checks, clutch control, and basic maneuvers, and she learned quickly without causing any serious mistakes.
• Gwen suggested driving on public roads, and Henry agreed as she handled traffic cautiously and steadily.
• Gwen asked Henry why he had adopted Skye, and he described finding a child using Skye’s name dead before taking the living Skye away.
• Henry told Gwen he planned to care for Skye until she was an adult and could support herself, rather than let her return to the sewers.

While Henry was away teaching Gwen to drive, Skye used a homemade system to access his computer and search its files. She began inspecting the hard drive but knew she had to finish before Henry returned to make dinner.

• Skye practiced hacking on the Dark Web and kept Henry's network as a private target because public exposure led him to change its architecture.
• Skye entered Henry's room, cracked his computer password, and discovered that its Windows system was only a virtual-machine disguise for a text-based Linux system.
• Skye repeatedly relearned Henry's changing password and used her own lightweight system to avoid his deliberately confusing commands.
• Skye embedded her system into Henry's computer without rebooting, mounted the hard drive, and began searching its files with little time before Henry returned.

Tony Stark compared his artificial intelligence A.L.B.B.Y. with Mr. Brown’s Miss A and investigated the mathematical ideas behind Miss A’s superior performance. He also answered Skye’s question about an electronic tracker and ended by asking JARVIS to connect him to C-Sis so he could inspect Mr. Brown’s interactive AI.

• Tony Stark asked JARVIS how A.L.B.B.Y. was progressing, and JARVIS reported that Miss A remained faster and more efficient.
• JARVIS estimated that Mr. Brown had used new chip architecture and mathematical research to improve Miss A.
• Tony Stark noticed a disproven paper linked to a discussion where moderator CK had identified an error, and suspected that Mr. Brown had solved the problem.
• JARVIS told Tony Stark that Skye had posted an electronic tracker diagram, and Tony sent her instructions from file C23-49.
• Tony Stark asked JARVIS to connect him to C-Sis to see how Mr. Brown’s interactive artificial intelligence had developed.

After the Mutant crisis, the United States shifted its attention toward foreign enemies, and on September 11, 2001, hijackers struck the World Trade Center. Henry watched the attacks unfold, unsure whether to help, while Katharine Hepburn urged him to bring supplies to those in need.

• Hank McCoy joined the U.S. government as an official of the Mutant Office, while Magneto remained under strict guard and the authorities’ hostility toward Mutants went dormant.
• The U.S. government turned toward the Middle East as it sought a foreign enemy to redirect pressure at home.
• Nineteen hijackers seized four airliners, and American Airlines Flight 11 and United Airlines Flight 175 struck the World Trade Center’s North and South Towers.
• Henry watched the attacks on television and considered how to face what came next, while Katharine Hepburn asked whether he could help.
• Katharine Hepburn proposed bringing first-aid supplies, food, and water to the scene, but Henry warned that she would only burden others.