Chapter Summaries

Caesar investigated the attacks on Stark Industries employees, reconstructing the first crime scene and finding a clue at the fourth. He traced the surviving attacker to a bar in Queens and entered with Eddie to find him.

• Caesar examined the first scorched crime scene and deduced that the attacker had blown up his own body, killing himself and two Stark Industries employees.
• Caesar and Eddie visited the first three attack sites, but found no evidence at the thoroughly burned locations.
• At the fourth attack site, Caesar found a melted iron fragment and traced it to the attacker, who had survived and escaped.
• Caesar flew to Charming Bar in Queens, and Eddie followed in his Venom form.
• Caesar identified the fourth attacker somewhere in the crowded dance hall, and Eddie pushed through the crowd to reach him.

Eddie and Caesar tracked a superhuman criminal to a bar, where they unexpectedly encountered Annie Wei Ying, Jane Foster, and Lucy Louise. Eddie pursued the target and fought him with Toxin, but an accomplice attacked with an explosive arrow as Eddie charged.

• Caesar, Eddie, and Toxin searched the crowded dance floor for people with unusual energy levels.
• Annie Wei Ying met Eddie and Caesar at the bar with Jane Foster and Lucy Louise.
• Toxin spotted a superhuman man in a leather jacket and black cap, and Eddie pursued him to the rear exit corridor.
• The target caught Eddie's arm and called for an accomplice, but Toxin struck him through the rear door and into the street.
• Eddie transformed with Toxin and charged the fallen target, but a modified arrow exploded against him.

Eddie fought Captain Steve and the Avengers after both sides mistook each other for the criminal they were hunting. The battle ended when Eddie recognized Steve, Natasha, Hawkeye, and Falcon, and explained that he had come with the Young Master to the bar for the same target.

• A bow-wielding agent fired explosive arrows at Eddie, but Eddie swallowed them and continued attacking the man wearing a baseball cap.
• A woman threw the man a round shield, which he used to block Eddie's powerful strike.
• The bow-wielding agent and Natasha joined Captain Steve, and Falcon landed beside them, forming a four-person group against Eddie.
• Eddie recognized Captain Steve, Natasha, Hawkeye, and Falcon, then disengaged Venom's combat mode.
• Eddie and Steve's group realized they had both come to find the same criminal and had mistakenly fought one another.

Caesar discovered the two criminals in the dance hall and used his emerging Kryptonian powers to attack them. The criminals were left incapacitated, and the Avengers realized Caesar had stopped them.

• Steve realized Eddie had left young master Caesar alone in the bar, and the Avengers rushed back when screams erupted inside.
• One criminal was hurled through the wall and another was killed when he crashed into an alley wall; Eddie said Caesar was responsible.
• Five minutes earlier, Annie introduced Caesar to Jane and Lucy as Mr. Kyle’s son, and Lucy reacted with surprise and tenderness.
• Caesar manifested X-ray vision, recognized the two approaching men as the criminals who had attacked Stark employees, and vanished from Annie’s arms.
• Caesar appeared above the criminals as their palms glowed with scorching heat and the dance hall grew stiflingly hot.

Caesar defeated two criminals with heat-generating abilities and learned that their Bio-modification Technology could endanger its users. After meeting the Avengers outside, he left the injured criminal for Captain America to interrogate.

• Caesar blocked the criminals’ superheated attacks and observed that their Bio-modification Technology began damaging their bodies when their heat reached its limit.
• Caesar broke one criminal’s arm and sent him through a wall, then kicked the bald man into the street, where he died.
• Caesar flew out to find Eddie and the Avengers, who had mobilized to capture the two criminals.
• Caesar introduced himself to the Avengers as Caesar Carl, son of the Symbol of Peace, and Steve welcomed him as a comrade’s son.
• Caesar asked Captain America to take the surviving criminal for interrogation, warning that he might accidentally make the man disappear.

After the Avengers’ captive was killed in a terrorist ambush, Pepper Potts and Aldrich Killian vanished from Stark Industries. Caesar connected the events to Killian, then planned to restore the Avengers’ and Stark Industries’ standing by using the Main God and holding a press conference himself.

• Steve invited Caesar to train with him at S.H.I.E.L.D. headquarters, and Caesar accepted before heading home with Eddie.
• Eddie reported that terrorists ambushed the Avengers, killed their captive, and escaped without injuring the heroes.
• Eddie told Caesar that Pepper Potts and Aldrich Killian had disappeared, sending Stark Industries’ stock into a steep decline.
• Caesar deduced that Killian was behind the attacks and had kidnapped Pepper to cover his tracks.
• Caesar told Eddie to ask Yutong to lend him the Main God and to arrange a global press conference for a Stark Industries executive.
• Caesar revealed that he intended to host the press conference himself, and Eddie was stunned.

Caesar Karl appeared publicly at Stark Industries' press conference and announced that he would take over Tony's work developing new technology. He then declared war on the terrorists targeting Stark Industries, giving them one week to kill him before he hunted them down.

• Stark Industries announced a press conference at the World Expo Hall, drawing media and industry figures amid the company's crises.
• Caesar Karl appeared alone onstage, floated onto the podium, and identified himself as Stark Industries' senior executive.
• Caesar announced that he would take on Mr. Tony's work and soon unveil a concept for a new technological product.
• Caesar publicly declared war on the terrorists targeting Stark Industries and his friends, promising to eliminate them if they failed to kill him within one week.

Caesar used a press conference to promise a new Stark Industries product and publicly challenge the terrorists, drawing their attention away from Potts and toward himself. He revealed that the product had not yet been made, then summoned the artificial intelligence Supreme God to help.

• Caesar’s press conference sparked widespread debate, with many people supporting his bid to save Stark Industries and confront the terrorists.
• Eddie questioned Caesar’s public strategy, and Caesar explained that the enemy wanted to destroy Stark Industries and was likely targeting Tony for revenge.
• Caesar reasoned that his announcement and deadline would make the terrorists focus on him instead of Potts and Stark Industries.
• Caesar welcomed the prospect of the terrorists attacking him, while Eddie worried that Stark Industries’ recovery depended on the promised product being real.
• Caesar asked Supreme God if it was ready, and the artificial intelligence introduced itself through the computer speakers.

Caesar tasked Main God with designing the infrastructure for an enormous, realistic virtual world and a helmet that could connect users’ senses to it. Main God solved the initial technical problems and designated the device “Holographic VR Helmet Technology.”

• Eddie reported that five supercomputers were powered up and ready, and Main God confirmed their connection.
• Caesar ordered Main God to create a secure database large enough to store information on everything within ten Earths, and Main God devised a twelve-Earth-capacity repository.
• Caesar requested a citywide network signal, and Main God proposed an alien signal tower at Stark Industries that could provide 100G-per-second upload speeds.
• Caesar described his plans for a vast virtual world with multiple detailed regions, and Main God estimated the computing needed to build each regional framework.
• Eddie realized Caesar intended to create a realistic virtual reality product, and Caesar asked Main God to devise a helmet that could transmit users’ senses into the virtual space.
• Main God resolved the final problem and named the research project Holographic VR Helmet Technology.

While Kylian held Miss Potts captive in Tennessee, Stark Industries launched Skynet, a virtual-reality platform that quickly drew massive demand. Kylian realized the product might threaten his plans against Tony Stark as pre-orders surged.

• Kylian interrogated the shackled Miss Potts and revealed that he wanted to destroy everything Tony Stark had built.
• Miss Potts dismissed Kylian’s ambitions, while he argued that Stark Industries was still vulnerable despite Caesar’s arrival.
• A bodyguard informed Kylian that Stark Industries had launched a new product and opened pre-sales on its website.
• Kylian watched the Skynet promotional video, which described a Holographic VR Helmet that simulated the senses and connected users to a virtual world.
• Kylian saw that the five-thousand-dollar helmet was initially available only in downtown New York, yet pre-orders had already exceeded one hundred thousand.

Kylian bought a Holographic VR Helmet to investigate Skynet, doubting that Caesar could have created such advanced technology so quickly. After entering the lifelike virtual world, he teamed up with another new user to explore its attractions.

• Kylian's bodyguards reported that New Yorkers were crowding the streets to buy Holographic VR Helmets, and Kylian ordered one taken to his underground lab for analysis.
• Kylian opened the other helmet, connected it to power, and used a fake identity to register a Skynet account.
• Kylian logged into Skynet and was stunned by its realistic world, crowded with player avatars and fantastical environments.
• Kylian met a new user called Z, agreed to explore with him, and learned about Skynet's World War II battlefield and New York-inspired Gotham City.

Caesar explained the design of Skynet’s special gameplay areas and showed Eddie Gotham City, where the city’s lawlessness was interrupted by a bank robbery. As the robbers prepared to escape, an injured police officer summoned a mysterious figure by shining a bat emblem into the sky.

• Caesar had created a World War II gameplay area with faction warfare, one-life characters, and a Hydra Easter egg that made Hydra players targets for other factions.
• Caesar and Eddie discussed Gotham City, a perpetually dark, crime-ridden simulation based on New York City in 2009.
• A group of masked gunmen blew open a bank, robbed it, and destroyed the responding police cars with rocket launchers.
• An injured AI police officer shone a bat emblem into the night sky as the robbers prepared to leave.

Caesar staged a Gotham bank robbery to make players choose between helping criminals or stopping them, but none intervened. Batman arrived, crushed the gang’s escape attempt, and pursued the last fleeing vehicle.

• Caesar explained that the robbery and its opposing quests were designed to test players’ choices, while Black Cat questioned whether their decisions would affect reality.
• The players declined both quests, and the criminals drove their vans toward an escape route.
• Batman’s Batmobile blocked the gang and flipped the leader’s van in a head-on collision.
• Batman defeated the armed criminals who got out to fight him.
• Batman used a grappling claw and his cape to pursue the remaining criminals as the players watched.

Stark Industries’ Skynet and Holographic VR Helmet became an instant sensation, undoing Kylian’s efforts to ruin the company. Caesar and Eddie learned that someone with an abnormal body temperature had entered Skynet, and Caesar sensed the attackers were already approaching.

• Stark Industries launched Skynet and its Holographic VR Helmet in New York, and players and news outlets praised the virtual world.
• Kylian smashed a VR Helmet and ordered his men to destroy Stark Industries’ main office building.
• Caesar and Eddie emerged from their Holographic VR Function Pods while Annie reported that the Prime God had detected a user with an abnormal body temperature entering Skynet.
• Caesar concluded that Stark Industries’ enemies had taken the bait and shifted their attention toward him.
• Caesar sensed the attackers approaching and declared that they had already arrived.

Eddie intercepted a missile aimed at the Stark Industries office, while Caesar flew off to confront the approaching aircraft. Kylian ordered the helicopters to keep attacking, and their pilots reported that an unidentified object was speeding toward them.

• Eddie transformed with Toxin and charged through the office window to intercept the missile before it struck the building.
• The missile exploded in midair, and the blast wrecked the office, but Eddie survived and returned inside with only minor injuries.
• Caesar stopped Eddie from confronting the aircraft and flew out to face them himself, leaving Eddie to protect Annie.
• The helicopter pilots reported the intercepted missile to Kylian, who ordered them to continue bombing the building.
• A helicopter pilot alerted Kylian that a small, unidentified object was approaching at high speed.

Caesar defeated Kylian’s forces with an army of Iron Man suits and confronted him at the villa. After Kylian attacked, Caesar overwhelmed him and revealed that he had also destroyed the armed helicopters himself.

• Kylian lost contact with the armed helicopters and realized his forces had been devastated.
• Kylian went upstairs to evacuate with Potts but found the hall empty and Caesar waiting for him.
• Caesar revealed that his people had captured the guards and that an Iron Man suit had taken the unconscious Miss Potts.
• Caesar explained that the Artificial Intelligence main god had mass-produced Iron Man suits, which defeated Kylian’s Bio-Gene Cyborgs.
• Kylian attacked Caesar, but Caesar sent him crashing through the villa and into the courtyard fountain.
• Caesar revealed that he, using Superman’s body, had dealt with the armed helicopters himself.

After years of peaceful life on Earth, Caesar sensed outsiders arriving and set off with Eddie to meet the Avengers. Meanwhile, after three years traveling through space, Kyle and his group finally neared the Galactic Alliance.

• Caesar spent the years after Kylian’s arrest protecting Earth, training with Captain America, and helping Eddie respond to disasters and threats.
• On Christmas morning, Caesar smashed through Eddie’s apartment wall to invite him to the Avengers’ lunch.
• Caesar noticed a strange glow on the horizon and told Eddie that outsiders had arrived on Earth.
• Caesar took Eddie toward the Avengers at supersonic speed.
• After three years of interstellar travel, Kyle and his group drew near the region of space where the Galactic Alliance was located.

After waking from nearly a year in cryosleep, Lorna found Kyle training with a new, unstable energy created by fusing Fire Divine Power with a mysterious energy of light. Kyle explained that he had discovered it after taking Tony’s Palm Light Cannon blast, but still struggled to control its immense power.

• Vis told Lorna she had slept for 360 days and seven hours and that Kyle wanted to see her in the Main Cockpit.
• After showering, Lorna entered the Main Cockpit and found Kyle surrounded by scorching, dazzling energy.
• Kyle showed Lorna a burst of the energy, then explained that it had appeared after he took Tony’s strengthened Palm Light Cannon head-on half a year earlier.
• Lorna recognized the energy’s powerful Light Element Trait and asked whether the change would harm Kyle.
• Kyle said the Fusion Energy had far greater potential than Fire Divine Power but drained him and remained difficult to control.

Kyle, Lorna, and Tony discovered that Tony had completed the Mark VII battle suit before three unknown spaceships appeared and pursued their Starfighter. Kyle accepted their communication and recognized the transmission as Galactic Alliance Fang Language.

• Kyle took Lorna to Tony's workshop, where Tony showed them the Mark VII battle suit he had developed.
• Lorna's magnetic control disrupted Tony's demonstration, while Viss admitted to interfering with Jarvis before Tony successfully assembled the suit.
• Three unknown spaceships appeared behind the Starfighter and began pursuing it.
• Kyle, Lorna, and Tony went to the main cockpit and saw a medium-sized ship leading two smaller ships.
• Kyle accepted the pursuing ships' communication and recognized their transmission as Galactic Alliance Fang Language.

Kyle, Lorna, and Tony encountered a fleet enforcing control over a region of space and were brought aboard its ship. Captain Reno welcomed Kyle and Lorna, and Kyle revealed they were humans from Earth while probing what Reno knew about the planet.

• Kyle ordered Viss to stop the Eagle Fighter Jet so they could learn about the advanced civilization that had intercepted them.
• The fleet’s ships surrounded the fighter, pulled it into the flagship, and more than thirty guards aimed their weapons at Kyle, Lorna, and Tony.
• Green Peak introduced himself as captain of the guard unit and led Kyle and Lorna toward the reception room, leaving Tony outside because of the ship’s weapons rule.
• Reno introduced himself as the ship’s captain and welcomed Kyle and Lorna to the Galactic Alliance.
• Kyle identified himself, Lorna, and Tony as humans from Earth, and Reno said a friend had once described Earth as a resource-poor planet with a low-level civilization.