Chapter Summaries

Julie brought Gwen and Sharina to Alvin for help, and Sharina asked him to get her parents’ Harvard admissions check returned because she wanted to attend New York University instead. Alvin began considering how to handle Sharina’s family conflict, then turned to Gwen and demanded to hear what was troubling her.

• Julie visited Alvin at a restaurant party after hearing he was in a bad mood, and he escorted her toward her van while warning her to avoid getting involved with local gang members.
• Alvin found Gwen and Sharina filming the restaurant from Julie’s van, confiscated Gwen’s phone, and threatened to send them to the Detention Room.
• Julie explained that Professor Cage had brought the girls because their problem mattered and partly involved her, so Alvin agreed to hear them out.
• Sharina asked Alvin to have Vice Principal Nelson return her parents’ $500,000 check for a Harvard admissions spot because she wanted to study sociology at New York University.
• Gwen explained that Sharina’s parents had paid for a Harvard spot without asking what she wanted, and Alvin sent Julie to comfort Sharina while he considered what to do.
• Alvin asked Gwen what her own problem was, but she only tried to look distressed until he ordered her to speak plainly.

Sharina told Julie and Alvin that she wanted to reject Harvard and pursue her own dream, while Gwen objected to Harvard’s attempt to recruit her as a political gesture. Alvin supported Gwen going, but the chapter ended with Harvard’s effort to repair its reputation running up against Battle Axe School’s stubborn pride.

• Gwen told Alvin she did not want to attend Harvard because its invitation was meant to ease tensions with Battle Axe School, but Alvin urged her to go as a form of revenge.
• Julie encouraged Sharina to explain her decision to Alvin and distinguish choosing her own future from simply rebelling against her parents.
• Sharina described how her parents had planned a socialite’s life for her and said she wanted to attend the school she had dreamed of.
• Julie supported Sharina’s resolve and urged her to win Alvin’s backing, but Gwen rejected the idea of going to Harvard and denounced its administrators.
• Alvin reflected that Harvard hoped Gwen’s enrollment would restore its standing, while Battle Axe School’s pride made the school unwilling to bend for outsiders.

Alvin agreed to recommend Gwen for Princeton after realizing she wanted his help as cover for starting a club there, then turned to Sharina’s uncertainty about rejecting Harvard. He offered Sharina time to bring her parents to Hell’s Kitchen and talk with them, leaving the final choice to her.

• Gwen admitted she wanted to attend Princeton and asked Alvin for a recommendation so she could get past her father’s objections.
• Alvin agreed to write Gwen a recommendation, and Gwen excitedly announced plans to start the Battle Axe Society at Princeton with Peter and Harry.
• Gwen noticed Sharina crying over her unresolved choice and urged Alvin to help her.
• Alvin told Sharina that she could choose her own school but first advised her to invite her parents to Hell’s Kitchen and discuss her plans with them.
• Alvin offered Sharina several days off and promised to attend their conversation without influencing it, leaving the final decision to her.

Alvin joined the Restaurant’s party after Julie lifted his spirits, then Hela sent him and Fox to Northern Europe to sober up. There, Alvin and Fox found that Scott Lang had finally sent a location signal after disappearing for several days.

• Gwen encouraged Sharina to stand up to her parents, and Alvin sent both girls back to school with orders to spend the night in the Detention Room.
• Julie comforted Alvin by showing him how much people cared about him, and his mood lifted as he returned to the Restaurant to celebrate.
• The party ended with Stark, Steve, JJ, and Alvin succumbing to the night’s drinking, while Steve’s lipstick-covered face left April unconvinced by his excuses.
• Hela summoned Heimdall to send Alvin, Fox, and herself to Northern Europe so Alvin could sober up.
• Alvin and Fox embraced in the snow, and Alvin received a phone alert showing that Scott Lang had sent a location marker.

Alvin and Fox set out with Hela aboard Little A to help Natasha and the other Black Widows attack the Red Room’s hidden airship. In Moscow, Natasha’s group prepared for the mission with weapons and blueprints, but Natasha trusted Alvin to handle the danger.

• Alvin agreed to take Fox along to rescue the Black Widows and boarded Little A with her.
• Hela joined Alvin and Fox in the cockpit and ordered Little A to take off.
• Jinna delivered weapons and the airship’s blueprints to Natasha, Yelena, and the recovered Black Widows at an estate near Moscow.
• Jinna warned that explosives could damage the airship and gave Natasha a tracker linked to four Russian missiles.
• Natasha declined the tracker, saying Alvin had already set out and that the enemy could not escape him.

Alvin and Little A searched Siberia for Scott Lang’s signal but found no blimp, then rushed to save Natasha Romanoff’s Quinjet squadron from missiles concealed in the clouds. Hela suggested Alvin use the Cyclops Eyeball to expose the hidden enemy, and Alvin began feeding it magic.

• Alvin and Little A searched the Siberian sky and ground for Scott Lang’s locator signal but detected no blimp.
• Natasha Romanoff contacted Alvin as five cloaked Quinjets approached, and hidden Super Rattlesnake missiles suddenly attacked them from the clouds.
• Little A accelerated to Mach 5 and shot down the missiles with electromagnetic rounds while directing the Quinjet pilots into its firing range.
• After the surviving aircraft cloaked and connected to Little A’s datalink, Alvin asked how the enemy had hidden itself in the clouds.
• Hela told Alvin the Cyclops Eyeball could see through illusions, and Alvin found it and began supplying it with magic.

Alvin and his allies pursued a hidden Russian super-blimp, fought off its missiles, and boarded it to rescue the people inside. Natasha led the Black Widows through a maintenance hatch while Alvin and the others followed into the airship.

• Alvin used a detection spell to reveal the Russian airship, and Natasha asked him to preserve it while they rescued its occupants.
• The airship launched Super Rattlesnake missiles, but Little A evaded them and stayed close beneath the blimp while jamming its communications.
• Fox and Hela argued over who should get the airship as Alvin considered keeping it or returning it to Russia.
• Natasha and Yelena used Behemoth Combat Suits to open a maintenance hatch and bring their companions aboard.
• Alvin followed them through the narrow passage and urged Yelena to keep moving to avoid a traffic jam.

Alvin and the Black Widows infiltrated the Red Room’s airship to rescue the imprisoned women while keeping the vessel intact. After assigning the team their routes, Alvin moved toward the fighting with Fox and Hela, insisting he would lead the way.

• Alvin reunited with Fox and Natasha, bantered with them, and used his Tech Glasses to reveal a detailed map of the airship.
• Alvin assigned the Black Widows to find their sisters, secure key systems, and ensure the airship landed safely; Natasha led them into a firefight.
• Alvin armed himself with a frost-enhanced Remington loaded with beanbag rounds, while Fox and Hela prepared to fight without damaging the airship.
• Hela questioned Alvin’s effort to rescue the women, but he said he would not ignore human lives, and Fox urged them to get moving.
• Alvin, Fox, and Hela followed Angel’s navigation through the airship, passed dead Hydra soldiers, and Alvin volunteered to take point as they approached more gunfire.

Alvin, Fox, and Hela fought through a Hydra base aboard an Airship, discovering that Hydra elites and Black Widows guarded it. They reached the fourth-floor command area, where Hela was blasted by an explosive arrow and landed in Alvin’s arms as Fox pressed ahead.

• Fox and Hela led the attack through Hydra troops while Alvin followed, realizing they were inside a Hydra base rather than the Red Room headquarters.
• Alvin and Hela helped defeat a grenade assault, and Hela’s sword magic wiped out Hydra soldiers at the stairwell.
• Fox and Hela subdued four Twin-Blade Widows, while Alvin bound and injected them with the Antidote after punching one of them into a wall.
• Hela exposed two hidden Assassins with a ripple spell and killed them before an explosive arrow struck her and sent her crashing into Alvin’s arms.
• Fox stepped over Hela’s hand and charged toward the corridor where the explosion had come from.

Taskmaster tried to activate the airship’s self-destruct system and escape, but Scott Lang, Fox, Hela, and Alvin stopped him. Natasha and Yelena arrived, and Natasha identified Taskmaster as the man who had tormented countless women and offered Alvin records of his training methods in exchange for taking him.

• Taskmaster returned to the Command Platform and started the airship’s self-destruct sequence, but Scott Lang appeared and blocked him from pressing the button.
• Scott Lang disrupted Taskmaster’s attempts to reach the self-destruct control, and Fox arrived and fired at him.
• Taskmaster fled into a passage and shot an explosive arrow toward the Command Platform, but Hela caught and contained it.
• Alvin used Telekinesis to drag Taskmaster back, and Fox demanded to know how he knew the Assassins League’s Gun Fu.
• Natasha and Yelena arrived, and Natasha explained Taskmaster’s identity and crimes before offering Alvin the Black Widow training records in exchange for handing him over.

Alvin destroyed the Red Room’s control data and agreed to let the freed Black Widows start over in Hell’s Kitchen. After Yelena discovered Mason could imitate her fighting style, Natasha confronted him and rejected his claims that the Black Widows had been given no choice.

• Alvin crushed the USB drive and told Natasha that the Black Widows should be free to choose their own lives.
• Natasha asked Alvin to give the freed Black Widows a chance to adjust to life in Hell’s Kitchen, and Alvin agreed.
• Yelena attacked Mason, but he mirrored her techniques and repeatedly knocked her down.
• Natasha prepared to fight Mason, who claimed his coercive methods had spared the Black Widows from guilt and accused Natasha of serving Hydra through S.H.I.E.L.D.
• Natasha said her past actions had been her own choices and charged Mason with her stun batons after calling him a coward and a pervert.

Natasha lost her fight with Mason, who revealed that he had activated a signal forcing his mutated Twin Blades warriors to fight to the death and offered to free the Black Widows in exchange for his life. After Scott Lang failed to disable the signal transmitter, Alvin challenged Mason to prove his ability to imitate, with the loser’s fate left in Alvin’s hands.

• Mason adapted to Natasha’s fighting style, defeated her, and forced her to retreat by pointing his blade at her neck.
• Mason claimed he had activated the Duress signal and explained that bombs implanted in the Twin Blades warriors could trigger their Energy Centers.
• Scott Lang appeared and removed a component from Mason’s belt, but Mason revealed that the Quake signal transmitter—not the Controller—had activated Duress.
• Alvin noticed a ghostly figure leaving Hela’s body and offered Mason one chance to survive by proving his ability to imitate him in a sword fight.

Alvin tested Mason’s ability by showing him the Waterlike Sword, overwhelming his supercomputer-like brain and leaving him in agony. After cooling Mason down and breaking his knee, Alvin questioned him about Sokovia and Hydra, but Mason defended Hydra’s goal of ruling the world.

• Alvin promised Mason freedom if he won, then demonstrated a slow sword strike with Angel Siyla.
• Mason’s ability tried to process Alvin’s swordsmanship until he collapsed with bleeding eyes and nose.
• Alvin used a Venom gauntlet inscribed with the Rune Thul to interrupt Mason’s brain activity and revive him.
• Alvin struck Mason’s knee with a Venom hammer and asked what was happening in Sokovia.
• Mason declared that Hydra sought to rule the world and control humanity, and Alvin questioned how he could believe that ideology.

Alvin used the Mind Ring to uncover Hydra’s plans and Mason’s role in its experiments, while Natasha recorded his confession. The chapter ended with Natasha killing Mason and warning that Hydra was different from what they had believed.

• Alvin challenged Mason’s vision of Hydra’s great hive and demanded to know who its god was.
• After Mason refused to reveal the god, Alvin used the Mind Ring to force him to share his memories and learned he had once been a S.H.I.E.L.D. Agent who was pretending to be a fanatic.
• Natasha took over recording Mason’s confession as Hela arrived with two unconscious Mutants whose complementary abilities Mason had exploited in experiments.
• Yelena revealed that the experimental data had been destroyed, and Hela said she would take the altered Black Widows to Mutant headquarters for treatment.
• Natasha chopped off Mason’s head and said his confession showed Hydra was different from what they had thought.

After Natasha revealed that Hydra had brought back the Hive, an ancient Mutant capable of controlling others, Alvin and his allies considered the threat to millions of Mutants and sought ways to track it. The chapter ended with Zhang Qiang warning Alvin that Black Bolt’s visit to Hell’s Kitchen could be dangerous if the Hive controlled him.

• Alvin praised Natasha for killing Mason and had the Corpse-Eater Vine dispose of the bodies while Yelena went to help clear the airship.
• Natasha explained that Hydra had three branches and that its core followers had apparently succeeded in bringing back their exiled Mutant god, the Hive.
• Natasha warned Alvin that the Hive could control Mutants and urged him to alert Nick Fury and the Gun Club while she mobilized Avengers intelligence networks.
• Alvin called Zhang Qiang, who agreed to focus Chinese intelligence on Mutants but said China could not intervene in Europe or the United States.
• Zhang Qiang told Alvin that the first group of Attilan children was traveling to Hell’s Kitchen with Crystal, Black Bolt, and Medusa, and asked whether Alvin would postpone the visit because the Hive might control Black Bolt.

Alvin agreed to shelter Attilan’s children and worked with Zhang Qiang to respond to Hydra’s plans involving Hive and the Sokovia summit. Zhang Qiang took charge of the crisis while Alvin headed back to Hell’s Kitchen to focus on his school and family, and Hela offered to address the Mutant problem.

• Alvin agreed to take in Attilan’s children and said he would speak with Black Bolt, while Zhang Qiang urged him to share the burden with others.
• Alvin told Zhang Qiang he suspected Hive was in Europe and proposed targeting Hydra members at the Sokovia summit; they inferred that Victor von Doom was cooperating with Hydra while building Sokovia’s prospects.
• Alvin revealed that Hydra’s Nightshade Plan had failed and that it was trying to provoke global chaos, prompting Zhang Qiang to contact Nick Fury and mobilize the Gun Club.
• Zhang Qiang told Alvin to return to Hell’s Kitchen, contact President Ellis, and warn Doom while the Gun Club monitored the summit ahead of its vote in fifteen days.
• Alvin chose to go home with Fox and focus on his students and their upcoming exams, while Fox reassured him and Hela volunteered to handle the Mutant problems.

Alvin left the Black Widows to clean the captured Airship while Hela transported him and his family back to Hell's Kitchen. In Sokovia, Doom worked with Ophelia and Hydra toward a political takeover, while Nick Fury used a decoy to survive a Special Forces attack and ordered surveillance of Hydra agents.

• Angel reported that restarting the Airship required eight specialists, so Hela ordered Yelena, Natasha, and the others to clean it and take the injured Black Widows to Asgard for treatment.
• Hela summoned Heimdall, who transported Alvin and his family away; Natasha told Yelena to contact Jinna and share the Red Room's Safe House and base locations.
• Doom warned Ophelia that he would end their cooperation unless Hydra secured his political goals, and he agreed to send Sokovian Special Forces against Nick Fury.
• Ophelia revealed that Hydra had lost contact with the Red Room and warned Doom not to approach the Hive during his induction ceremony.
• Nick Fury watched Doom's Special Forces attack an abandoned factory, where they recovered the body of Fury's decoy, then ordered Agent Hill to monitor Sokovian communications and locate Hydra agents.

Hell's Kitchen settled back into its routine after the Party as Alvin helped Old Cheng with his plans for Jiawen and disciplined students who had stayed out all night. The chapter ended when Alvin noticed his daughter caught in the middle of a crowd near the school cafeteria.

• Fox showed Alvin a newspaper photo of Hela beating Yad, then went to thank Hela for sending Asgardian Warriors to help the Mutant Union.
• Old Cheng told Alvin he wanted to buy Jiawen a house, and Alvin offered to cover the cost of a villa in the Dock District.
• Gwen told Alvin that Sharina's parents had agreed to let her attend New York University, and Alvin sent Gwen to the Detention Room for staying out all night.
• Alvin ordered Sarakoff to make Peter and Harry scrub every school building's exterior walls after they had helped Sharina the previous day.
• Alvin warned Sharina to work hard and not regret her decision, then saw his daughter surrounded by students near the cafeteria.

Alvin caught up with Little Ginny at school and learned she and Nick had sneaked a look at Gwen’s cheerleading rehearsal, while Nick feared Alvin would confiscate his belongings. Jason Bourne told Alvin that the school was thriving, though graduating students had been stealing bricks, and Alvin accepted it as a harmless keepsake and source of motivation.

• Little Ginny ran to Alvin and told him the Wolves were being challenged by a basketball team, then let slip that Nick had taken her to spy on Gwen’s rehearsal.
• Peter dragged Gwen toward the Detention Room as Alvin questioned her, and Little Ginny warned Nick that Alvin planned to punish him.
• Nick pleaded with Jason Bourne to defend him, but Mindy stomped on Nick’s foot and led Little Ginny into the school.
• Jason Bourne told Alvin that Wanda’s cooking had sent him to Dr. Yinsen’s and asked Alvin not to be too hard on Nick.
• Bourne updated Alvin on the school’s successes and the students’ missing-brick thefts, and Alvin said the graduates could keep their keepsakes if they were careful.

Battle Axe School held its June exams under tight security, as Alvin and the Hell’s Kitchen community made sure nothing could disrupt the students. The chapter left Alvin in good spirits despite Chief George calling with bad news.

• Hell’s Kitchen cleared the streets and Chief Beckett organized police roadblocks as Battle Axe School prepared for the exams.
• Alvin’s security team escorted the Department of Education staff into the school, while Frank and Old Cage defended the school’s intimidating reputation.
• Bourne questioned the heavy security and the Wolves’ chances, prompting the school staff and parents to boo him.
• Bourne promised to buy the staff drinks and declared that the Wolves would win, and Steve offered to host everyone at Alvin’s Restaurant.
• Alvin enjoyed watching students enter their exams and stayed cheerful despite receiving bad news from Chief George.