Chapter Summaries

Lu Yifang returned from Atlantis with Black Queen Luna, and Katie told him that a mysterious Spider-Man had been helping the academy. Peter Parker had secretly become Spider-Man, but when he rushed to stop a street robbery, he found Lu Yifang had already disarmed the criminal.

• Lu Yifang came home to Katie, who questioned the feminine scent on him before Luna arrived and Katie learned Luna was a weakened Demigod.
• Katie told Lu Yifang that an anonymous student in a spider-emblazoned suit had been helping the Enforcement Team, and he realized the hero was Peter Parker.
• Peter Parker prepared his new Spider-Man suit and Web-Shooter, then hurried to intervene in a street robbery.
• Lu Yifang disarmed the robber before Spider-Man arrived, and Peter recognized him as President Yifang.

Deadpool and Lu Yifang discovered that Spider-Man's powers began after a spider bite during a museum field trip, and they investigated a nearby research facility. Their investigation linked the facility to other labs and ability-related crimes, while rumors suggested a virus could trigger a second awakening of powers.

• Deadpool joked with Spider-Man and revealed he had discovered Spider-Man's identity after seeing him build a Web-Shooter in the lab.
• Spider-Man explained that a spider bit him during a museum field trip, and his powers appeared after he spent the night with a fever.
• Lu Yifang brought Spider-Man and Deadpool to the Student Union headquarters and asked Katie to investigate research facilities near the museum.
• Lu Yifang used his authorization to access Enforcement Team information, and Katie found the facility was connected to several labs involved in ability-related crimes.
• Spider-Man recognized two mutants from a fight, describing their heat-generating abilities, powerful healing, and one mutant's sudden explosion.
• Deadpool recalled underground black-market rumors about a virus that could trigger a second awakening of powerful abilities.

Lu Yifang, Spider-Man, and Deadpool disrupted an illegal Extremis Virus transaction in Academy City. After the buyer exploded, Lu Yifang survived unharmed and took the surviving seller to Dr. Sterns for study.

• Lu Yifang, Spider-Man, and Deadpool watched a suspected Extremis Virus deal and moved in when the seller handed over a briefcase.
• Spider-Man confiscated the briefcase and restrained the suited seller, but the man erupted from his Silk cocoon covered in flames.
• Lu Yifang caught the Extremis-enhanced seller and remained unharmed despite the man's extreme heat.
• The bespectacled buyer revealed his resentment over losing his former elite status, then charged at Lu Yifang and exploded.
• The suited seller regrew his lost limbs, and Lu Yifang captured him to take to Dr. Sterns for examination.

Lu Yifang learned that the Extremis Virus could trigger Corrosive Mutant Awakening but carried serious risks, then discovered Tony Stark had helped develop its early concepts. Lu Yifang, Deadpool, and Red Devil arrived at Tony’s lab and crashed into his armor as he showed off.

• Katie told Lu Yifang and Deadpool that the Mandarin had been orchestrating terrorist attacks around the world.
• Dr. Sterns explained that the Extremis Virus could alter DNA and awaken mutant abilities, but its use was difficult and dangerous.
• Dr. Sterns linked early Extremis Virus concepts to a 1999 paper by Tony Stark, prompting Lu Yifang to decide to visit him.
• At his coastal villa, Tony tested his Mark XLII armor while dancing to music and striking a showy pose.
• Lu Yifang, Deadpool, and Red Devil teleported into Tony’s lab, knocked the armor apart, and interrupted Tony’s celebration.

Lu Yifang asked Tony about the Extremis Virus and showed him a paper Tony had coauthored, but Tony’s reluctance to get involved vanished when he learned Happy had been critically injured. Tony declared war on the Mandarin and publicly revealed his address to lure the terrorist out.

• Lu Yifang questioned Tony about the Extremis Virus, and Tony recognized his own name on a paper describing its research.
• Tony learned that Happy had been badly injured in a terrorist attack and rushed to the hospital to comfort Pepper.
• The Mandarin’s threatening broadcast played in Happy’s hospital room, and Tony left furious.
• Tony told reporters he was declaring war on the Mandarin and had Jarvis reveal his address to the world.
• Tony challenged the Mandarin to come after him, calling the fight a personal vendetta for hurting his family.

Lu Yifang gave Tony an X Crystal and challenged him to stop defining himself only as Iron Man before Tony flew off to confront the Mandarin. Lu Yifang then confronted Vice President Trump with evidence of his alliance with the Mandarin and offered to heal Ivanka’s leg in exchange for power.

• Lu Yifang argued that Tony’s refusal to become a Mutant had left Pepper and Happy vulnerable, then handed him an X Crystal.
• Tony flew away in his armor to face the Mandarin while Lu Yifang stayed behind to pursue a more fundamental problem.
• Lu Yifang and his companions entered Trump’s home, where Trump had been reading a bedtime story to Ivanka.
• Lu Yifang revealed that he had evidence Trump was helping the Mandarin because the Mandarin promised to heal Ivanka’s amputated leg.
• Lu Yifang offered to heal Ivanka and advance Trump’s career, then asked whether Trump wanted power.

Lu Yifang awakened Ivanka's powers, healed her legs, and allied with Puchuan to challenge Obama politically. As Tony's mansion came under attack, Tony used an X Crystal to transform and escaped in a new suit of armor.

• Lu Yifang crushed an X Crystal to awaken Ivanka's butterfly wings, then gave her Blood of Apocalypse, which healed her leg.
• Puchuan agreed to work with Lu Yifang against Mandarin and considered using the alliance of psychics and S.H.I.E.L.D. to advance his political career.
• Three armed helicopters attacked Tony's mansion and destroyed his armor warehouse while Tony was trapped in his unfinished Mark IV suit.
• Tony told Jarvis to shatter the X Crystal inside his armor, underwent a violent transformation, and absorbed the melting armor.
• Tony burst from the sea in a new suit, destroyed all three helicopters with a laser blast, and flew away.

Tony woke in the Blood Edge Armor with his new ability fused to it, then crashed in a snowy town and met Peter Parker, who revealed he was Spider-Man. After Peter helped him repair the armor, Tony tried to recharge it and ended up enduring an embarrassing experiment.

• Tony discovered he could control the Blood Edge Armor without Jarvis, but it lost power and crashed, leaving him naked in the snow.
• Tony entered a nearby shed for clothes, where Peter Parker webbed him to a wall and recognized him from a newspaper reporting his presumed death.
• Peter introduced himself as Spider-Man and explained that his suit concealed his identity while he fought evil; Tony reflected on Iron Man as his own disguise.
• Peter told Tony that his grandfather was in the hospital and showed him two X Crystals he had bought as a Christmas gift for his family.
• Tony repaired the Blood Edge Armor with Peter’s help, but could not find its charging port and the armor lost power again.
• Peter suggested using Aunt Mei’s nipple patches after Tony tried an electrical charge, leaving Tony mortified.

Lu Yifang flew to Spider-Man’s grandparents’ house after Tony called for help with his newly awakened mutant ability, which had fused him with his armor. Lu Yifang gave Tony textbooks and exercises to learn control, and Spider-Man returned with news of an Extremis Virus user in town.

• Tony called Lu Yifang using Spider-Man’s phone and asked for professional help understanding his mutant awakening.
• Lu Yifang tracked Tony’s location and flew to the countryside house, where he found Tony charging himself through electrode clips while repairing a generator.
• Tony explained that his ability had fused him with his armor, and Lu Yifang said he likely needed more practice controlling it before he could separate from it.
• Lu Yifang gave Tony textbooks and practice problems on mutant abilities, explaining that completing them would help him gain control.
• Spider-Man returned from town and reported traces of an Extremis Virus user.

Tony, Lu Yifang, and Spider-Man investigated an Extremis Virus user and met the mother of a suicide bomber to obtain a folder of information. After the woman and her accomplices attacked them, Lu Yifang and Tony fought back, but Tony's armor ran out of power.

• Spider-Man identified a woman outside a bar as an Extremis Virus ability user, and Tony suspected she was there to retrieve information about the suicide bomber.
• Tony and Lu Yifang met Mrs. Davis, who handed Tony a folder, but the Extremis user seized Tony and claimed to be making an arrest for the Department of Homeland Security.
• Lu Yifang revealed his S.H.I.E.L.D. badge and sent the woman crashing through a wall, while Spider-Man evacuated the bar and Tony took the folder.
• Tony summoned the Blood Edge Armor and fought the woman, killing her by blasting her head apart with his energy beams.
• Lu Yifang emerged from the burning bar after accidentally causing an explosion, and Tony collapsed to one knee when his armor ran out of power.

Lu Yifang charged Tony with electricity so he could travel to Miami and pursue the Mandarin, while Spider-Man persuaded them to take him along. The trio flew toward the Mandarin’s suspected base with Spider-Man riding on Tony’s back.

• Lu Yifang sent the data from the Extremis Virus report to Coulson, who identified a possibly active Mandarin base in Miami.
• Tony realized he needed more energy to reach Miami, so Lu Yifang charged him with increasingly strong electricity.
• Spider-Man returned after evacuating the people and asked to join Lu Yifang and Tony in confronting the Mandarin.
• Tony agreed to take Spider-Man after Spider-Man mentioned cameras at his family’s warehouse.
• Lu Yifang and Tony flew toward Miami with Spider-Man riding on Tony’s back.

Lu Yifang, Tony, and Spider-Man infiltrated the Mandarin’s Miami villa and rescued Rhodes, only to discover the Mandarin upstairs after searching the underground base. Lu Yifang suspected the captured man was a decoy and demanded to know who his real boss was.

• Lu Yifang killed the villa’s outer guards, and Tony found an entrance to the underground lab.
• Tony entered the lab and found Rhodes hanging from the ceiling, but Extremis Soldiers overwhelmed him.
• Lu Yifang hit Tony with ball lightning, helping him defeat the soldiers and free Rhodes.
• Rhodes warned that the stolen Iron Patriot was intended to help the enemy approach the President.
• Tony, Rhodes, Lu Yifang, and Spider-Man found the Mandarin in the villa and captured him.
• Lu Yifang questioned whether the Mandarin was merely a stand-in and asked where his real boss was.

Trevor revealed Aldrich Killian as the mastermind behind the Mandarin attacks, and Killian showed Tony that Pepper had been injected with the Extremis Virus. Lu Yifang learned Killian was at the Port of Pensacola, where President Obama had been captured, and the group headed there to rescue him.

• Trevor dropped three beads that projected a hologram of Aldrich Killian, who revealed himself to Tony and showed Pepper in critical condition after an Extremis injection.
• Lu Yifang challenged Killian, recognized his plan to seize power, and secretly contacted Coulson at S.H.I.E.L.D.
• Coulson told Lu Yifang that Killian was at the Port of Pensacola and had captured President Obama.
• Lu Yifang took off for the port, and Tony agreed to carry Rhodes and Spider-Man on his armor despite complaining about becoming their bus.

Killian staged a worldwide broadcast of Obama’s planned execution, but Tony, Lu Yifang, and S.H.I.E.L.D. intervened. Coulson and Melinda rescued Obama, who learned that the Vice President had become acting president and initiated his impeachment.

• Killian began broadcasting Obama, bound in Iron Patriot armor, but most of his cameras were destroyed when Iron Man arrived.
• Killian sent nearly a hundred Extremis Soldiers against Tony and Lu Yifang, and Lu Yifang hurled a cargo ship into them.
• Tony summoned his new automated armor suits while Lu Yifang told Spider-Man to help fight the Extremis Soldiers.
• A S.H.I.E.L.D. Quinjet arrived, and Coulson and Melinda freed Obama and brought him to safety.
• Coulson told Obama that Vice President Puchuan had become acting president and initiated his impeachment.

Tony rushed to rescue Pepper but was overwhelmed by Killian, who planned to conquer the world. Coulson and Melinda intervened, revealing their formidable abilities as S.H.I.E.L.D. agents, and Melinda struck Killian with her liquid-metal blade.

• Tony entered the control room to rescue Pepper, but Killian dismantled his suits and nearly killed him.
• Killian declared that S.H.I.E.L.D., Academy City, and the world would one day bow to him, but Coulson arrived and challenged him.
• Coulson suppressed Killian's Extremis abilities with his right hand and beat him until Killian grabbed a pistol and grazed Coulson's cheek.
• Coulson retreated behind cover as Melinda dropped into the room, and Killian's bullets and shotgun blasts failed to stop her liquid-metal body.
• Melinda formed a blade from her arm and drove it into Killian.

Tony and Pepper survived the explosion at Pensacola Harbor, where Pepper killed Killian after her Mutantization awakened. As Coulson and Melinda approached Killian, mind-controlled allies attacked Lu Yifang, and a group of attackers tried to crush him with a shipping container before fleeing when they sensed his power rising.

• Killian detonated explosives in the control room, and Tony feared Pepper had died in the blast.
• Pepper emerged alive but berserk, destroyed an Iron Man Armor, and killed Killian while Tony tried to calm her.
• Pepper returned to her senses, and Coulson, Melinda, Lu Yifang, and Spider-Man gathered around the badly injured Killian.
• Melinda, under mental control, attacked Lu Yifang while Spider-Man webbed him, and a burly man dropped a shipping container on them.
• Three energy shockwaves blew up the container, and a one-eyed man sensed Lu Yifang's power surging before ordering the attackers to flee.

Lu Yifang defeated the attackers and used Black Queen to interrogate the one-eyed psychic’s soul, learning that Whitehall had ordered the operation. He planned to confront Fury about S.H.I.E.L.D.’s problems, while Black Queen warned that his approaching Level 5 advancement could make him lose control.

• Lu Yifang killed the blade-wielding fighter, crushed the burly mutant, and killed the energy mutant after their ambush failed.
• Lu Yifang incapacitated the one-eyed psychic, but the psychic used a telekinetic barrier to help his burrowing companion escape underground.
• As the one-eyed psychic died, Black Queen summoned his soul so Lu Yifang could question him.
• The one-eyed psychic revealed that he was Hydra’s special operations captain and that Director Whitehall had ordered the mission to capture Killian.
• Black Queen consumed the one-eyed psychic’s soul and warned Lu Yifang that his next advancement could cause him to lose control.
• Lu Yifang said he would go see Fury and take the problems inside S.H.I.E.L.D. seriously.

Lu Yifang and Fury discussed S.H.I.E.L.D.'s return to the United States and its Hydra problem. Fury began the Phoenix Plan to absorb Hydra into S.H.I.E.L.D. and revealed that his superhuman ability let him copy another person's abilities and skills for a day.

• Fury told Lu Yifang that the new President had authorized S.H.I.E.L.D. to resume law enforcement operations in the United States under the United Nations banner.
• Lu Yifang warned Fury that Killian's Extremis Virus was tied to Hydra's theft of research data, and Fury acknowledged that Hydra had infiltrated much of S.H.I.E.L.D.
• Fury announced the Phoenix Plan to digest Hydra and use its resources to strengthen S.H.I.E.L.D., with help from a list Professor X and White Queen had compiled.
• Fury found Alexander Pierce on the list and said he would deal with his former boss himself.
• Fury revealed that he could copy one person's superhuman ability and skills for a day, but copying abilities above his level caused a damaging backlash.

Fury confronted Alexander Pierce at his home after learning Pierce was Hydra’s leader, and rejected Pierce’s offer to join forces. Fury left the conversation determined to oppose Hydra and defend a powerful S.H.I.E.L.D.

• Pierce reflected on his role in Hydra’s infiltration of S.H.I.E.L.D. and worried that Whitehall’s clash with Academy City had come too soon.
• Lu Yifang and Fury appeared in Pierce’s living room, and Fury revealed his Blood Eyes and took control of Pierce’s body.
• Fury showed Pierce files exposing his betrayal, and Pierce admitted that Fury had uncovered the truth.
• Pierce argued that Hydra’s authoritarian human empire was necessary to unite humanity against alien threats.
• Fury acknowledged some of Hydra’s ideals but rejected its extremism and said he would oppose Pierce to protect humanity through S.H.I.E.L.D.

Fury used S.H.I.E.L.D.’s mental-monitoring system to awaken the original Pierce and erase the Hydra persona controlling him, with help from Lu Yifang and Academy City. Pierce and Fury then prepared to bring back someone whose influence could stabilize S.H.I.E.L.D. as it absorbed the Serpent Shield.

• Fury told Pierce that S.H.I.E.L.D.’s stored mental model could be used to revive Pierce’s suppressed identity and defeat the Serpent Shield persona.
• Fury revealed that Lu Yifang had arranged Academy City’s covert help, leaving Pierce isolated from outside rescue.
• Lu Yifang explained how Academy City, S.H.I.E.L.D., and Hydra countered one another, and Fury helped Pierce’s original personality suppress and erase the Hydra identity.
• Pierce regained control of his body, embraced Fury, and explained that he had been manipulated by the Serpent Shield persona.
• Pierce warned Fury that absorbing the Serpent Shield would remain difficult and asked him to bring back someone influential enough to stabilize the situation.