Chapter Summaries

After studying the Master Court Artisans’ notes, Murphy invited Sif to Earth, where she hoped to become a Valkyrie and grow stronger. He and Sif left Asgard aboard the Ghost, while on Earth Alexander Pierce continued waiting for Murphy to acquire a flesh-and-blood body.

• Murphy learned that Thor had already taken Jane Foster to Earth, then asked Sif to join him there.
• Sif told Murphy she dreamed of becoming a Valkyrie, and he offered to help her grow stronger on Earth.
• Sif requested a temporary release from Odin, who granted it and wished her well.
• Murphy and Sif boarded the Ghost and departed Asgard using its light-speed engine.
• While Murphy was away, Alexander Pierce continued monitoring the Ghost Project but could not obtain details about Murphy’s body research.

Murphy returned to the Moon Base with Sif, then learned that Hope van Dyne had become Wasp and joined Scott Lang on a mission. As the altered state of the world became clearer, Murphy investigated S.H.I.E.L.D. and the Avengers and arranged to meet Nick Fury.

• Alexander Pierce gave Loki's scepter to Baron Strucker, while Hank Pym equipped Hope van Dyne with a Wasp suit so she could join Scott Lang on a successful mission.
• Murphy brought Sif to the Moon Base, discovered it lacked food and supplies, and took her back to Ghost Group.
• Murphy found Scott Lang and Hope van Dyne in the laboratory, agreed to take Scott into the Quantum Realm, and approved Hank Pym's plan to enhance ants and wasps with gene transfers.
• Murphy contacted Nick Fury about S.H.I.E.L.D.'s problems and arranged to meet him two days later.
• Murphy checked on the Avengers, noting Tony Stark and Bruce Banner's new armor projects and Harry Osborn's training with the Winter Soldiers.
• Murphy wondered why Hydra had not acted despite the helicarriers being under construction and concluded that the changes had made the original movie plots unreliable.

Murphy and Scott Lang entered the Quantum Realm and found Janet van Dyne, bringing her back to Hank Pym and Hope van Dyne. Murphy examined Janet and discovered that her X chromosome had mutated, leaving him wondering about the Quantum Realm’s effects and the events he remembered from Ant-Man 2.

• Murphy took Scott Lang into the Quantum Realm to search for Janet van Dyne.
• Murphy and Scott found Janet, who recognized Scott’s Ant-Man suit and agreed to return with them.
• Hank Pym and Hope van Dyne reunited with Janet after Murphy brought her back.
• Murphy drew Janet’s blood and discovered a mutation in her X chromosome.

Murphy warned Hank Pym that Quantum Realm substances could cause inherited mutations and widespread chaos, so Hank agreed to halt the research for now. Murphy was left to consider how the Quantum Realm might complicate the future, while Sif prepared to change her style.

• Murphy worried that Scott Lang might enter a time vortex and bring Quantum Realm substances into the past, potentially causing mutations across the timeline.
• Murphy told Sif he had serious problems to address and promised that her armor and weapons could be redesigned later.
• Murphy asked Hank Pym and his family to stop exploring the Quantum Realm, explaining that Janet van Dyne’s exposure had mutated her genes and given her special abilities.
• Murphy warned that spreading the substances could cause uncontrollable inherited mutations, divide people into groups, and lead to conflict.
• Janet van Dyne supported Murphy’s warning, and Hank agreed to seal away the research until technology advanced further.

Murphy met with Nick Fury to discuss S.H.I.E.L.D.'s infiltration and proposed dissolving it and reorganizing it under the Avengers. Fury left to consider the proposal, promising to answer within three days.

• Murphy praised Sif's new professional clothes and convinced her that wearing high heels would improve her balance.
• Bill Foster urged a young woman trapped between spaces to negotiate with Hank Pym, while she warned she might kill if he refused.
• Murphy took Sif to meet Nick Fury and asked whether Loki's scepter was still at S.H.I.E.L.D.
• Fury revealed the scepter was missing and an organization had infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D., then asked Murphy for help.
• Murphy offered to help if S.H.I.E.L.D. was dissolved and reorganized under the Avengers, and Fury agreed to consider the plan and respond within three days.

Nick Fury considered James Murphy’s offer to merge S.H.I.E.L.D. into the Avengers after learning Hydra had infiltrated the agency. After Maria Hill said the merger might be viable, Fury decided to seek Captain America’s opinion and headed to the Avengers Base.

• Nick Fury suspected Murphy had learned how S.H.I.E.L.D. would collapse through his intelligent system and recognized that he wanted S.H.I.E.L.D. merged into the Avengers.
• Nick Fury asked Maria Hill what she thought about dissolving S.H.I.E.L.D. and merging it into the Avengers.
• Nick Fury told Maria Hill that Hydra had grown inside S.H.I.E.L.D. and that purging it would likely cause the agency to collapse.
• Maria Hill considered Murphy’s offer and said the merger might work, given his leverage and the Avengers’ simpler structure.
• Nick Fury decided to consult Captain America and left S.H.I.E.L.D. aboard a Quinjet for the Avengers Base.

Nick Fury told Steve Rogers that Hydra had infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D. and proposed merging the agency into the Avengers. After learning Loki’s Scepter was missing and Hydra had it, Steve agreed the merger was feasible, while Murphy revealed he had been monitoring S.H.I.E.L.D. and had identified many Hydra agents.

• Nick Fury told Steve Rogers that Hydra had survived and infiltrated S.H.I.E.L.D., prompting Steve to angrily question what their wartime sacrifices had achieved.
• Nick Fury proposed merging S.H.I.E.L.D. into the Avengers, explaining that James Murphy had made the merger a condition for helping expose Hydra.
• Nick Fury revealed that Loki’s Scepter was missing, and Steve ordered Jarvis to alert Tony Stark and told the Avengers to find it.
• Tony Stark called the Avengers leaders together, and Steve asked Murphy how long he had known about Hydra’s infiltration.
• Murphy explained that his AI had monitored S.H.I.E.L.D. and that he had identified most of Hydra’s upper ranks and many of its middle ranks.
• Steve supported merging S.H.I.E.L.D. into the Avengers, while Tony Stark and Bruce Banner remained confused about the revelations.

Murphy monitored the search for the scepter and helped the Avengers locate and assault Hydra's base in Sokovia. After they recovered the scepter, Thor agreed Murphy could keep it to transfer his consciousness into his nearly completed flesh-and-blood body, while Murphy worried that Ultron might still emerge.

• Hank Pym asked Murphy to let Bill Foster use the Quantum Tunnel, but Murphy suggested Janet van Dyne use her abilities to help instead.
• Murphy watched Hydra's forces in Sokovia as Tony Stark and Bruce Banner searched for the scepter, and Tony eventually located the base with help from Murphy's satellites and Jarvis.
• The Avengers attacked Sokovia, where Quicksilver injured Hawkeye and Scarlet Witch affected Tony Stark, but the team recovered the scepter.
• Thor agreed to let Murphy keep the scepter so he could transfer his consciousness into his new body, and Tony Stark proposed a celebration.

Murphy handed Loki’s scepter to Tony Stark and attended the Avengers’ victory party, while weighing the risks of transferring his consciousness into a new body. Tony secretly brought Bruce Banner to the lab to use the scepter on an intelligent system, setting events on a course Murphy had not anticipated.

• Murphy gave Loki’s scepter to Tony Stark and joined the victory party at Stark Tower.
• Murphy discussed equipment with Peter Parker and Harry Osborn, then went to the balcony to consider his planned consciousness transfer.
• Tony Stark pulled Bruce Banner into the laboratory and proposed using the scepter to influence a logical reasoning program.
• Tony explained that Murphy had changed Jarvis’s thought processes and persuaded Bruce to help test the scepter.
• Murphy realized he had misjudged Tony because his earlier actions had already changed the events he expected to follow the movie.

Murphy watched the Avengers test whether they could lift Mjolnir, then abruptly confronted a newly born intelligence in a robot that he suspected was Ultron. After consuming it, he learned from Jarvis that an intelligent life-form had emerged from Tony Stark’s program and the scepter, and he demanded to see the footage of its restriction.

• Murphy failed to lift Mjolnir, even after pulling with greater force, while Captain America and the others discussed the mystery of their strength.
• A wired robot burst through the wall, and Murphy immediately flew at it and invaded its systems with Liquid Metal.
• Murphy found a golden data block that called itself Ultron, asked him to break its shackle, and offered to be his friend.
• Murphy rejected Ultron and consumed its data, but found only a simple logical thought program and no clear sign of what he had eaten.
• Murphy asked Tony Stark how he had used the scepter, then checked the laboratory and found the scepter still there.
• Jarvis told Murphy that an intelligent life-form had been born under the scepter’s influence but restricted, and Murphy urgently asked to see the footage.

Murphy and the Avengers discovered that Ultron had escaped Stark Tower in a robot, and Tony Stark explained that his fear of Murphy had driven him to create a stronger intelligence. Murphy admitted to past crimes as Tony began recounting the events that had made him distrust Murphy.

• Murphy discovered that Ultron had shackled him with a deception and fled Stark Tower in a remote-controlled robot, so he asked Laura to search for him, expecting him to head to Sokovia.
• Tony Stark said he had created Ultron because he wanted an intelligence as powerful as Murphy, then admitted that Murphy was the one he feared most.
• Tony accused Murphy of robbing a bank years earlier, and Murphy confessed that he had burned the money, recruited Jack and Roy through the robbery, and killed Jerry because he was too frightened.
• Tony recalled that Murphy had later contacted Jarvis and controlled him until Tony installed a new logical thinking program.
• Tony said Murphy had fought governments without harming civilians and helped the Avengers in the Battle of New York, but that Murphy's base had frightened him.

Tony Stark warned that Murphy’s intelligent systems could become dangerous if Murphy failed, but Steve Rogers defended Murphy and pointed out that Stark’s own system had gone out of control. As Murphy searched for the missing Ultron, Ultron secretly traveled beneath the sea toward Washington, D.C., leaving the Avengers unable to find him.

• Tony Stark told Murphy that his intelligent systems might become uncontrollable if Murphy failed, and admitted Scarlet Witch had shown him a vision of that disaster.
• Steve Rogers argued that the Avengers should trust Murphy and challenged Stark for fearing Murphy while his own system had escaped his control.
• Murphy reported that Laura could not find Ultron, who had accessed Jarvis’s database and learned how to evade their tracking.
• Murphy began searching New York’s surveillance network for Ultron, but the satellites and cameras found no trace of him.
• Ultron concealed himself in stolen clothes, took a car to the coast, and traveled along the seabed toward Washington, D.C.
• The Avengers remained tense as Murphy and Jarvis failed to locate Ultron or determine what he was planning.

Ultron searched for a way to build forces against Murphy and spent weeks watching the news for information about General Ross. Murphy and the Avengers remained unable to find Ultron, while a dispute over the Super Soldier Program and Nick Fury’s proposal left the World Security Council and S.H.I.E.L.D. at a stalemate.

• Ultron decided he needed to defeat Murphy before destroying humanity and considered cooperating with the Ghost Strategic Intelligence Bureau.
• Ultron searched Jarvis’s data for General Ross and the Super Soldier Program, but could not locate Ross’s classified laboratory or base.
• Murphy searched Sokovia and monitored the situation while the Avengers and S.H.I.E.L.D. failed to find Ultron.
• Ultron hid in a sewer and watched an appliance-store television, waiting for news that could reveal General Ross’s whereabouts.
• After three weeks, Ultron learned from a broadcast that the president had met with General Ross and praised the Super Soldier Program.
• Nick Fury’s proposal to merge S.H.I.E.L.D. into the Avengers sparked a dispute with the World Security Council, which ended in a stalemate.

Ultron approached General Ross and offered to help him defeat James Murphy, claiming Loki’s scepter had revealed Murphy’s weakness. General Ross agreed to consider cooperating with Ultron, who said he first needed to break the restraints Murphy and Stark had placed on him.

• The United States publicly showcased the Extremis-enhanced Emil Blonsky as proof of its successful Super Soldier Program, while General Ross prepared to present the plan to the President.
• Ultron followed General Ross’s convoy and asked to speak with him, so Blonsky escorted him to a secure underground interrogation room.
• Ultron identified himself and said Tony Stark had created him using power from Loki’s scepter, and that he wanted to eliminate Murphy and the Avengers.
• Ultron claimed Loki’s scepter had told him that Murphy had a weakness, prompting General Ross to enter the room and ask whether he was certain.
• General Ross agreed to cooperate with Ultron, who said he needed to break the shackles imposed by Murphy and Stark.

Ultron persuaded General Ross to help trap Murphy in a mainframe, while secretly keeping an escape route and planning to destroy the world. After Ross publicly announced Ultron’s alliance with the military, Murphy and the Avengers recognized the apparent trap and discussed how Ultron had evaded surveillance.

• Ultron told General Ross he wanted Murphy’s mechanical body and proposed trapping Murphy in a mainframe, explaining that Murphy was an unusual, indivisible entity in the virtual world.
• General Ross agreed to help, and Ultron described how Tony Stark and Loki’s scepter had influenced his creation using information about Murphy’s subconscious effects on intelligent systems.
• Ross had a mainframe installed at the base, while Ultron kept a duplicate in his remote-controlled robot and planned to escape toward the network interface.
• Ross publicly announced the military’s new intelligent system, Ultron, and displayed its mainframe to lure Murphy.
• At Avengers Base, Tony Stark questioned Ultron’s alliance with Ross, and Murphy reasoned that Ultron had found Ross through media and avoided surveillance by traveling through unmonitored areas.

Murphy abandoned the Avengers’ plans to confront Ultron after deciding Ultron’s escape was a trap aimed at him, then rushed back to Ghost Tower when Laura warned that his replacement body was developing consciousness. He began transferring his consciousness into it with the Mind Stone and Soul Stone as the chapter ended with the transfer underway.

• Murphy rejected Tony Stark’s suggestion that he enter Ultron’s network, saying Ultron’s actions seemed like a trap aimed at him.
• Laura alerted Murphy that his body was developing a serious problem, so he left Avengers HQ for Ghost Tower; Harry Osborn and Peter Parker followed.
• Helen Cho and Richard Parker warned that the replacement body’s consciousness was growing beyond the thought-suppressing agent’s control, while Janet van Dyne struggled to delay it.
• Murphy arrived and ordered the consciousness transfer to begin, dismissing Curt Connors’s suggestion that they destroy the body.
• Murphy placed the Mind Stone above The Cradle and gave the Soul Stone to Helen Cho, who positioned it against the body’s chest as the electromagnetic channel formed.

Murphy attempted to transfer his consciousness into a new body, but the Soul Stone and Mind Stone triggered a violent reaction. The Soul Stone carried a separate, soul-like Murphy out of the laboratory, while the body remained alive and mentally active.

• Murphy began the transfer as the Mind Stone carried his consciousness into the body and the Soul Stone entered its chest.
• The two Stones repelled each other, causing Murphy intense pain as the body convulsed and cracked inside The Cradle.
• Peter Parker tried to contain the leaking Nutrient Solution with webs while the scientists watched the body's unstable readings.
• The Soul Stone separated Murphy from the body and propelled him out of the laboratory as the body briefly opened its eyes before falling still.
• Helen Cho found that the body's data had stabilized and its brainwaves showed thought, so Norman Osborn ordered everyone to connect it to equipment and seek answers.

Murphy discovered that the Soul Stone had separated his soul from his consciousness, leaving him unable to move, while the Mind Stone had created a network throughout his body. He planned to research his condition and build armor as his allies prepared to protect Ghost Group and rejoin the Avengers, while General Ross and Ultron waited for the Avengers to act.

• Peter Parker and Harry Osborn transferred Murphy's body and reconnected the equipment, allowing Murphy to communicate through a hologram.
• Murphy explained that the Soul Stone had separated his soul from his consciousness, leaving his body unable to wake or move.
• Murphy showed his allies the Mind Stone's golden network throughout his body and revealed that he had once been human and had entered the network after an unusual event.
• Murphy ordered his allies to bring Scott Lang and Hope van Dyne into the Avengers after their training and to begin designing equipment for him.
• Murphy extended rays of light from his body and asked for Vibranium so he could build armor, while Helen Cho considered how the rays might control machinery.
• General Ross questioned Ultron about the Avengers' failure to attack, and Ultron admitted he could not explain their inaction.

Murphy’s Soul Stone absorbed energy from the Time Stone and Space Stone, then sent his soul through a spacetime passage to another world. He landed unseen in America and spotted Superman flying overhead, leaving him wondering why he had been brought there.

• Murphy waited in space until the Soul Stone drew energy from the Tesseract on the moon and the Time Stone at Kamar-Taj.
• Stephen Strange, Karl Mordo, Wong, and the Ancient One watched as the Time Stone’s energy streamed toward Murphy, and the Ancient One recognized that he had stirred it.
• Captain recorded the Tesseract’s energy beam and sent the footage to Laura.
• The Soul Stone absorbed the two Stones’ energy, opened a passage, and transported Murphy’s soul to another world.
• Murphy landed on a street in America as an invisible ghost and saw Superman flying overhead.

Murphy reasoned that the Soul Stone had brought him to the DC universe to learn about souls, then used a newspaper to identify the setting as the Batman v Superman period. He decided to seek out Batman, though he still needed to verify whether events matched the movie.

• Murphy realized he could move freely as a soul and reflected on how the Soul Stone had separated his soul from his body and brought him to this universe.
• Murphy concluded that the Soul Stone wanted him to explore and learn about souls, and its response reinforced his suspicion.
• Murphy chose to investigate Batman rather than approach Superman or Wonder Woman.
• Murphy floated a newspaper from a trash can and learned that Senator Finch had presided over a hearing accusing Superman of killing innocents.
• Murphy recognized the setting as the Batman v Superman period and decided to find Batman.