Chapter Summaries

Dilos exposed footage of mutants being tortured and dissected in experiments, including evidence that William Stryker experimented on his own mutant son, Jason. He condemned society’s persecution of mutants and urged mutants to unite and demand equal rights, leaving his message broadcast across the United States and the world.

• Dilos connected a device to the hearing’s television and played more than twenty videos showing mutants undergoing deadly experiments, including experiments conducted by United States soldiers.
• The footage revealed that William Stryker had experimented on his mutant son, Jason, convincing the hearing’s audience that mutants could be born into human families and were victims of persecution.
• Dilos denounced people who abused mutants and argued that society’s hatred helped force mutants into conflict with ordinary humans.
• Dilos addressed mutants watching around the world, urging them to stop hiding, unite, and claim the equal rights they deserved.

Dilos’s speech at the hearing moved viewers and helped turn public opinion in favor of mutants and the Superpowered Guard Team. The hearing ended with the senators agreeing to his request, and Dilos recognized that the fight for equal rights had only begun.

• Kuya-Tas, Cecilia, Kitty, and others at S.T.A.R. Labs wept as they watched Dilos’s speech, while the X-Men and mutants across the country were deeply moved.
• Charles felt hopeful that he might live to see humans and mutants coexist peacefully, and Hank realized the hearing could change mutants’ future.
• The audience applauded Dilos, and Senator Stern and the other senators agreed to his request before ending the hearing.
• Dilos answered reporters’ questions, then used telekinesis to shield himself, Qin Jiayin, and Hank as he led them away.
• Dilos’s speech and evidence spread worldwide, and support for mutants’ rights overwhelmed the anti-mutant movement and transformed the Superpowered Guard Team into popular heroes.
• After Dante told him about the shift in public opinion, Dilios reflected that the struggle ahead had only just begun.

After a celebration at the X-Mansion, Dilos and Qin Jiayin discussed their future and separated to handle urgent business. Above Earth, Megatron assessed the planet’s powerful inhabitants and decided that its danger made him want to conquer it even more.

• Dilos and Qin Jiayin held a celebration at the X-Mansion, where Dilos proposed and the guests partied until morning.
• Dilos and Qin Jiayin helped carry the exhausted guests to bed, then stayed at the school until everyone recovered.
• Dilos learned that Kara was still recovering in the lab and agreed to meet Qin Jiayin’s parents in China after urgent matters were handled.
• Dilos sent Qin Jiayin to Isla Sorna to watch over Kara and Thundercracker, then went to the Metropolis military district to meet Sam Lane.
• Megatron watched Earth footage and concluded that the planet’s powerful beings made it too dangerous for a small Decepticon force to invade.
• Megatron resolved to conquer Earth anyway and declared that Cybertron would be reborn there.

Megatron considered how to strengthen the Decepticons and overcome the threat posed by Dilos Sullivan. Soundwave revealed an object on Earth whose energy rivaled or surpassed the AllSpark, and Megatron recognized it as the Tesseract.

• Megatron reviewed surveillance footage from military bases and battlefields around the world and identified Dilos Sullivan as an obstacle to conquering Earth.
• Megatron weighed Cybertronian weaknesses and upgrade methods, regretting that Shockwave was no longer alive to solve their problems.
• Soundwave brought Megatron images of two powerful energy signatures, including one connected to Earth.
• Megatron recognized the Earth-based object as the Tesseract and celebrated the prospect of using it to rule Earth and become the overlord of the universe.

Megatron began preparing to secure the Tesseract by constructing a Space Bridge, while Dilos followed a Kryptonian distress beacon from Smallville to a remote Texas gas station. There he identified the elderly Deke-Sel as a Kryptonian and confronted him with Blue Kryptonite, demanding to know why he had come to Earth.

• Megatron chose to build a Space Bridge so the Decepticons could gather resources, shield the Tesseract's energy, and evade its pursuers.
• Dilos searched Smallville in disguise and found a Kryptonian distress beacon hidden in an old treasure chest alongside a photograph from a century earlier.
• Dilos read the beacon's code, which identified its owner as senior Kryptonian scientist Deke-El, and the object teleported him to a remote gas station in Texas.
• Dilos scanned the area, then approached an elderly man whose reaction to the name Deke-Sel revealed that he was Kryptonian.
• Dilos restrained the old man with Blue Kryptonite and demanded an explanation for his arrival on Earth.

Dilos captured Dek-Sel and read his memories, uncovering how Jor-El’s experiments and imperial ambitions helped trigger Krypton’s civil war and destruction. After learning Dek-Sel had fled to Earth to avoid the conflict, Dilos took him unconscious to his underground base on Isla Sorna, intending to use his scientific knowledge.

• Dilos restrained Dek-Sel, confirmed he had come to Earth as a refugee, and discovered he had a wife and child there.
• Dilos read Dek-Sel’s memories and learned that Jor-El had developed time-reversal technology, the Phantom Zone, and devices that enabled Kryptonian expansion.
• Jor-El used the Phantom Zone to imprison criminals and led Krypton into conflict with other worlds, then pursued godhood through experiments on prisoners.
• Dru-Zod exposed Jor-El’s control over the Council, and the resulting rebellion and civil war ended with Krypton’s destruction.
• Dek-Sel had escaped the civil war to Earth, and Dilos knocked him unconscious and teleported him to the base on Isla Sorna.

After copying Dirk-Sel’s mind, Dilos mastered advanced Kryptonian technology and devised a new serum method suited to his triple-helix genes. While Dante’s facilities spent nearly two months preparing the necessary equipment, Dilos began training under six thousand times normal gravity, worried that surviving Kryptonians would soon arrive.

• Aboard the Pioneer, Dilos copied Dirk-Sel’s knowledge, had him help organize it, then erased his memories of Dilos and his advanced Kryptonian science before sending him home for good.
• Dilos spent nearly seven days mastering Dirk-Sel’s technology and discovered that Kryptonian biotechnology could help him adapt serum to his unusual triple-helix genes.
• Dilos planned to use nanobiological robots to prepare his genes for a new serum, whose effects would remain dormant until activated later.
• Dilos upgraded Dante and gave it blueprints for new equipment, but Dante estimated the high-precision machinery would take nearly two months to produce.
• Dilos entered the gravity chamber and increased the training environment to six thousand times normal gravity as he worried that surviving Kryptonians might arrive soon.

Dilos studied Dirk Sear’s research on the Kryptonian biological field and experimented with activating one through his acupoints, qi and blood, and bioelectricity. He successfully awakened the field, destroyed the gravity chamber, and completed his Superman transformation.

• Dilos learned that Kryptonians used a biological field to protect their bodies, reduce air resistance, and fly, and he theorized that qi and blood might activate one.
• Dilos experimented with directing true essence and qi-and-blood power through his acupoints, sensing a warm current but failing to activate the field.
• Dilos perceived passageways connecting his acupoints and tissues, then tried channeling true essence through them while activating his qi and blood.
• Dilos guided his bioelectricity through the acupoints to combine with true essence, triggering a powerful energy that erupted from his body and wrecked the gravity chamber.
• Dilos discovered golden-blue patterns across his body and found himself floating above a crater, confirming that his biological field and Superman transformation were complete.

Dilos successfully activated his biofield and discovered that it enhanced his vitality, energy control, flight, and speed. After pushing his flight to two hundred times the speed of sound, he crossed the Arctic and Canada and prepared to test his strength.

• Dilos sensed that his experiment had created a biofield throughout his body and learned to control it instinctively.
• Dilos used the biofield to fly and race around his training room, then teleported to the Arctic Icefield to test his abilities.
• Dilos accelerated through the sky to one hundred times the speed of sound before drawing on his true essence energy to strengthen his biofield.
• Dilos combined his biofield with bioelectricity, vitality, and mental power, reaching two hundred times the speed of sound.
• Dilos crossed the Arctic Ocean and Canada before heading over the Pacific Ocean to test his strength.

Dilos tested his newly formed biofield and discovered that it greatly amplified his strength and let him control Heat Vision while moving. After Dante reported the results, Dilos learned that Hulk was fighting the military at Culver University and set out to handle him himself.

• Dilos punched the ocean and created a vast crater and towering waves after his biofield concentrated his body's kinetic energy.
• Dante reported that Dilos's biofield enhanced his strength by about two thousand times and that his punch released force equivalent to ten thousand times his normal state.
• Dilos tested his spaceflight and Heat Vision, finding that the biofield improved his energy control while his eyes still limited Heat Vision's power and duration.
• Dilos considered the threat posed by Jor-El and resolved to prepare for what was coming.
• Dante detected Hulk fighting the military at Culver University, and Dilos chose to go alone because the other team members could not handle him.

Dilos followed Hulk after the military battle and studied the divided consciousness within him, then attacked him in a cave to test his strength. Hulk healed and grew stronger with his rage, while Dilos claimed that one finger would be enough to kill him.

• Dilos arrived too late to witness the end of Hulk's fight with the military and memorized General Thunderbolt Ross's psychic fluctuations before following Hulk and Betty Ross.
• Dilos observed that Hulk's mind held separate Bruce Banner and Hulk consciousnesses linked by psychic bands.
• Hulk took the unconscious Betty to a cave, where Dilos suddenly hurled him into the mud.
• Hulk attacked Dilos with a powerful punch, but Dilos broke his hand and remained unharmed.
• Hulk's rage healed his arm and increased his strength, and Dilos challenged him by saying he only needed one finger to kill him.

Dilos tested Hulk’s limits and repeatedly defeated him while Hulk’s strength rose with his rage. As Hulk neared his physical limit, Dilos noticed Hulk’s consciousness was beginning to consume Bruce Banner’s and considered destroying it with biofield-condensed mental power.

• Hulk flew into a rage and unleashed a storm of punches, but Dilos shattered the resulting air columns with one finger.
• Dante reported that Hulk’s punches approached twenty thousand tons, and Dilos taunted him into attacking again.
• Dilos blocked Hulk’s punches and kicks with one finger, then repeatedly used Taiji techniques to redirect Hulk and throw him to the ground.
• Hulk kept getting up and attacking, growing stronger until he reached nearly one hundred and ninety thousand tons of punching force and began flying at nearly twelve times the speed of sound.
• Dilos noticed that Bruce Banner’s spiritual light mass was being enveloped by Hulk’s, and he considered using mental power through his biofield to destroy Hulk’s consciousness.

Dilos connected his mental power to the biological field and regained precise control over his abilities. Hulk lost his rage and collapsed, and Dilos destroyed Hulk’s independent consciousness, leaving Bruce Banner’s mind to absorb the released psychic energy.

• Dilos used his mental power to connect his consciousness to the biological field and regain control over its energy and feedback.
• Hulk lost sight of Dilos, dispelled his rage, and rapidly lost strength before falling into a mountain valley unconscious.
• Hulk’s body shrank back into Bruce Banner, and Dilos found that Banner’s core memories and personality remained intact despite severe mental damage.
• Dilos pierced Hulk’s independent consciousness with psychic blades and cut it into fragments.
• Bruce Banner’s psychic light sphere absorbed the fragments’ energy and grew dozens of times larger, while Hulk died and Banner was reborn.

Bruce Banner reunited with Betty after Dilos Sullivan rescued them and subdued Hulk. Dilos revealed that Hulk was no longer inside Bruce, and Bruce discovered he could control his transformation before Dilos offered them wine to celebrate.

• Bruce woke in an unfamiliar room, found Betty outside speaking with a blond man, and rushed to her side.
• Betty explained that Dilos Sullivan had subdued Hulk, provided them with a hiding place, and invited them to work as researchers for his company.
• Bruce recognized Dilos from a newspaper and asked why he wanted to hire them, warning that he could lose control at any moment.
• Dilos questioned whether Hulk was still inside Bruce, and Bruce's heart raced as his eyes turned green without triggering a transformation.
• Betty urged Bruce to calm down, and Bruce slowed his heartbeat and returned to normal.
• Dilos told Bruce that Hulk was gone and offered him and Betty wine to celebrate.

Dilos offered Bruce Banner and Betty Ross generous research positions, and Bruce agreed after Dilos promised to suppress his transformations. The three entered a spatial passage to Sullivan Company to continue discussing the arrangement.

• Bruce Banner confirmed that Hulk’s consciousness had vanished and thanked Dilos for resolving the problem.
• Dilos offered Bruce Banner and Betty Ross research freedom, equipment, legal protection, and a share of profits.
• Bruce Banner hesitated because he could still transform in his sleep and accidentally hurt people.
• Dilos said he could put Bruce Banner’s mutated genes into dormancy to prevent transformations, though he could not remove them.
• Bruce Banner agreed to join, and Dilos opened a spatial passage to Sullivan Company and invited him and Betty through.

Bruce and Betty began work at Dilos's new laboratory, researching ways to improve the body's healing and adaptability based on Bruce's transformations. Back at Isla Sorna, Dilos learned that Dr. Connors had successfully developed a new serum and hurried to inspect the results.

• Dilos showed Bruce and Betty the fully equipped laboratory he had prepared outside Brooklyn.
• Bruce and Betty began researching drugs to enhance the body's self-healing and adaptability rather than seeking a cure for Bruce's transformations.
• Dilos returned to the Isla Sorna underground base and found Dr. Connors exhausted but excited.
• Dr. Connors told Dilos he had successfully spliced triple-helix DNA using Dilos's preliminary data and ideas.
• Dr. Connors reported that all test subjects had succeeded with stable results and high genetic compatibility, then led Dilos to his personal laboratory.

Dilos visited Dr. Connors's laboratory and learned how he had developed a new serum based on the Super Soldier Serum, using genetically modified gorillas as test subjects. Dr. Connors warned that administering it required immense energy, but Dilos said he could provide all the energy needed.

• Dilos saw that Dr. Connors's silverback gorillas had human-like intelligence, speech, and immense strength, and warned that they could become dangerous.
• Dr. Connors described the soundproof cages, quantum shields, and Pym Particle emitters protecting the gorillas, including those able to mimic other materials.
• Dr. Connors explained that he had used Captain America's DNA, mutated spiders, enhanced suits, and a plant-based component of the Super Soldier Serum to develop the new serum.
• Dilos asked about side effects, and Dr. Connors said the serum had no known flaws but required an enormous amount of energy to cause its mutations.
• Dilos told Dr. Connors not to worry about the energy requirement because he had plenty to spare.

Dilos and Dr. Connors combined two enhancement methods into a plan for Dilos’s final transformation, which they prepared to begin after Dante completed the equipment. Dilos left to upgrade Piotr, while Qin Jiayin secretly cultivated with dangerous starlight crystals and planned a surprise for him.

• Dilos and Dr. Connors discovered that the new serum’s powerful benefits came with severe side effects, then found that combining it with indirect mutation-triggered enhancement could reduce those flaws and increase its potential.
• Dilos convinced Dr. Connors that his True Essence could power the transformation, though they also prepared backup energy cores and completed the experiment’s preparations.
• Dilos learned that Dante needed a little over a month to manufacture and test the equipment, then decided Dr. Connors would need enhancement after Dilos’s own transformation.
• Dilos visited Qin Jiayin, who said she was tired and asked him to talk with her the next day, so he left to find Piotr and give him an upgrade.
• Qin Jiayin continued meditating in the gravity room beside several enormous starlight crystals, whose power caused her psychic shielding device to signal Extreme Danger, and anticipated Dilos’s reaction to her surprise.

Dilos oversaw Piotr’s foundation establishment and tested the enormous improvements to his strength, speed, and metal form. After Dilos urged him to trust his own abilities and take responsibility, Piotr gained confidence, and they prepared to motivate the rest of the team to train.

• Piotr absorbed a pool of life potion and completed foundation establishment, advancing his Guoshu cultivation and improving his appearance.
• Dilos tested Piotr’s abilities and found that his metal transformation multiplied his strength to roughly sixty thousand tons per arm while greatly increasing his speed and resilience.
• Dilos told Piotr that his achievements came from his own hard work and that he was ready to protect himself and shoulder greater responsibilities.
• Piotr thanked Dilos, resolved to face the road ahead with confidence, and agreed to leave with him to encourage the others to train.

Dilos established the United States Department of Mutant Affairs and recruited Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch. After seeing Wanda’s revealing outfit attract unwanted attention, he decided to require the department’s employees to wear formal clothing.

• Dilos became director of the Department of Mutant Affairs, with Hank as deputy director and Charles serving in a limited role while he managed his school.
• Hank transferred trusted City Hall staff to the new department, while mutant friends of Charles and Hank joined its ranks.
• Quicksilver and Wanda arrived to fill out employment forms, and Wanda’s outfit drew lecherous thoughts from men nearby.
• Dilos asked Hank whether Wanda usually dressed that way and learned Magneto had taught her to, while Charles could not control her.
• Dilos confirmed that he could require employees, including the twins, to wear formal clothing at work and on missions.